Contact: Jürgen Kreyling, Jan Pottgießer

The fully automated mesocosm facility enables high resolution data to be collected on plant growth and vitality, and water consumption. With the integrated automated irrigation a number of different experimental conditions can be created to investigate the effects of different water levels or drought scenarios.

The 108 FieldScales can be used to precisely control the water level or supply, and to determine the evapotranspiration of the test units. The PlantEye from Phenospex® measures various plant parameters (stand height, leaf area, leaf inclination, projected leaf area) that indicate many important growth parameters.

The mesocosm facility was funded through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).