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  5. How well do you know your growth chambers? Testing for chamber effect using plant traits
 
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How well do you know your growth chambers? Testing for chamber effect using plant traits

Author(s)
Porter, Amanda S.  
Evans-FitzGerald, Christiana  
McElwain, Jennifer C.  
Yiotis, Charilaos  
Elliott-Kingston, Caroline  
Uri
http://hdl.handle.net/10197/7867
Date Issued
2015-09-22
Date Available
2016-09-05T16:23:46Z
Abstract
Background: Plant growth chambers provide a controlled environment to analyse the effects of environmental parameters (light, temperature, atmospheric gas composition etc.) on plant function. However, it has been shown that a ‘chamber effect’ may exist whereby results observed are not due to an experimental treatment but to inconspicuous differences in supposedly identical chambers. In this study, Vicia faba L. 'Aquadulce Claudia' (broad bean) plants were grown in eight walk-in chambers to establish if a chamber effect existed, and if so, what plant traits are best for detecting such an effect. A range of techniques were used to measure differences between chamber plants, including chlorophyll fluorescence measurements, gas exchange analysis, biomass, reproductive yield, anatomical traits and leaf stable carbon isotopes. Results and discussion: Four of the eight chambers exhibited a chamber effect. In particular, we identified two types of chamber effect which we term 'resolvable' or 'unresolved'; a resolvable chamber effect is caused by malfunctioning components of a chamber and an unresolved chamber effect is caused by unknown factors that can only be mitigated by appropriate experimental design and sufficient replication. Not all measured plant traits were able to detect a chamber effect and no single trait was capable of detecting all chamber effects. Fresh weight and flower count detected a chamber effect in three chambers, stable carbon isotopes (δ13C) and net rate CO2 assimilation (An) identified a chamber effect in two chambers, stomatal conductance (gs) and total performance index detected an effect only in one chamber. Conclusion: (1) Chamber effects can be adequately detected by fresh weight measurements and flower counts on Vicia faba plants. These methods were the most effective in terms of detection and most efficient in terms of time. (2) δ13C, gs and An measurements help distinguish between resolvable and unresolved chamber effects. (3) Unresolved chamber effects require experimental unit replication while resolvable chamber effects require investigation, repair and retesting in advance of initiating further experiments.
Sponsorship
European Research Council
Science Foundation Ireland
Type of Material
Journal Article
Publisher
BioMed Central
Journal
Plant Methods
Volume
11
Issue
44
Start Page
1
End Page
10
Copyright (Published Version)
2015 the Authors
Subjects

Chamber effect

Chlorophyll fluoresce...

Controlled environmen...

Experimental design

Fresh weight

Gas analysis

Plant anatomy

Plant growth chamber

Stable carbon isotope...

Uniformity trials

DOI
10.1186/s13007-015-0088-0
Language
English
Status of Item
Peer reviewed
This item is made available under a Creative Commons License
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ie/
File(s)
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Name

Porter_Elliott-Kingston_etal_2015_How_well_do_you_know_your_growth_chambers_Plant_Methods.pdf

Size

1.27 MB

Format

Adobe PDF

Checksum (MD5)

1e8e73f3e65d4705c1e3483160d67646

Owning collection
Agriculture and Food Science Research Collection
Mapped collections
Biology & Environmental Science Research Collection•
Earth Institute Research Collection

Item descriptive metadata is released under a CC-0 (public domain) license: https://creativecommons.org/public-domain/cc0/.
All other content is subject to copyright.

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