Dedicated June 9, the University of Georgia center will help scientists worldwide study the effects of global change on plants. Gerald Arkin heads the Griffin campus of the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences . Scientists can control the temperature, humidity, light, pollutants and atmospheric gases. The Envirotron provides controlled environments to study anything from single plants to entire landscapes. Researchers use indoor growth chambers to study plants, pests and diseases.
Greenhouses allow researchers to simulate crops in the field.
And movable sunlit chambers were designed for landscape-level research. The Envirotron will eventually allow off-site researchers to access data through the Internet. Arkin said the idea for the Envirotron began in 1991 at a National Institute for Global Environmental Change conference. About 250 scientists had gathered to find an engineering response to global change. One of the challenging concepts was the need for facilities that would allow us to better address global change.