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ASGSB 2000 Annual Meeting Abstracts
[80]
EVAPOTRANSPIRATION BY SALAD CROPS IN CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENTS. D. E. Ciolkosz1 and G. D. Goins2. 1Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Cornell University. 2 Advanced Life Support and Space Biology Laboratory, Kennedy Space Center
Water use by crops in Bioregenerative Life Support Systems (BLSS) is an important aspect of the performance of effective life support systems. Experiments were conducted to measure the daily evapotranspiration (ET) by three salad crops (Lettuce, Radish, and Spinach) which are candidates for use in BLSS. The plants were grown in a Nutrient Flow Technique (NFT) system in a controlled, closed environment under one of three different electrical light sources (fluorescent, red LED, red LED + blue). The plants were grown for 21 days, with shoot and root fresh mass and dry mass measured at day 21. The plants were grown under the same temperature regime, humidity level, nutrient concentration, and photosynthetic light level. Results indicate that, if system evaporation is discounted, water use in hydroponic lettuce is a function of the incident photosynthetic light level, and is not strongly affected by the level of thermal radiation. Results from the spinach and radish plants suggest a combined dependence on photosynthetic and thermal radiation levels. These results underline the importance of the interaction between light source and water use, which may be of crucial importance for Bioregenerative Life Support (BLSS) systems.
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