NPEC selects PSI for HTP growth rooms

We are pleased to announce that we have selected the Czech company Photon Systems Instruments (PSI) to build the NPEC module 4 High Throughput Phenotyping (HTP) growth chambers. This module will be housed in a dedicated building at the Wageningen Campus.

It will contain five growth chambers, three of ca. 20 m2 and two of ca. 15 m2. Each growth chamber will accommodate between 300 and 2200 plants that can be phenotyped using a range of state-of-the-art technologies. This will provide the capacity to record parameters describing plant status, growth and performance under a large range of environmental conditions, that can be homogeneously controlled. All this will enable researchers with the best possible tools to measure the genetic component of phenotypic variation in plants.

Each of these phenotyping rooms is composed of three highly integrated components:

1. Climate controlled growth chamber, plus plant cultivation systems.
2. A LED lighting system.
3. A phenotyping system consisting of imaging systems and other sensors, using automation and robotics.

In the five growth rooms LED lighting for plant growth allows researchers to vary aspects of light quality and quantity including natural daylight simulations, with features such as dusk and dawn, and with light intensities up to 2000 μmol m-2 s-1. Plant growth temperatures are -4 to +42 °C, relative humidity is adjustable from 40 to 85 %, and CO2 can be added to produce higher than ambient concentrations. Sensors will be present to measure humidity, light intensity, spectral characteristics, temperature, CO2-concentration and airflow in the room and at plant level. Phenotyping technologies includes imaging systems for the visible light spectrum (RGB), invisible light spectrum, chlorophyll fluorescence imaging, thermal imaging and SWIR hyperspectral reflectance imaging units. An impression of NPEC module 4 can be found here.