Natural environments are characterized by a broad range of simultaneously fluctuating environmental inputs which often have unpredictable synergistic effects. To understand the full complexity of plant responses to climate change, we need the ability to model past, present, and future climate conditions, considering a range of parameters such as temperature, carbon dioxide, relative humidity and more.
Phytotrons offer a single solution for these many challenges. A phytotron is a growth chamber or facility that permits exquisite control of a wide range of environmental parameters. These include relative humidity, the intensity and spectral composition of light, and the temperature of both air and soil. These high-tech facilities allow users to recreate the dynamics of a normal day, with sunrise, midday, and sunset each having their own unique impacts. The ability to separately modulate environmental parameters is also essential to modeling plant response to climate change.