Minister Coveney officially opens the Rosemount Environmental Research Station.
Formally launched by the Minister for Agriculture, Marine, and Food Simon Coveney, the University recently hosted the official opening of the Rosemount Environmental Research Station at Belfield.
This state of the art technology platform enables further advances in research themes across the disciplines of biology, plant biotechnology, horticulture, agriculture, environmental and evolutionary biology.
Speaking at the official opening, Minister Coveney said that the new facilities at Rosemount will “further assist the development of the Agri-food sector in Ireland, while also strengthening UCD’s position in attracting future funding in this area”.
Home to the Programme for Experimental Atmospheres and Climate (PEAC), facilities include walk-in plant growth rooms which are capable of simulating any global climatic and atmospheric condition from the past, present or future.
Plants within these growth chambers are exposed to controlled atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and oxygen in order to see how they respond to different combinations of environmental changes. This facility is central to growing an understanding of both how plant and crop species have adapted and will adapt to climatic and atmospheric change.
The growth chambers are programmed for day and night length, light intensity and temperatures thereby allowing researchers to simulate conditions such as a cloudy day in Ireland or a high-light day in the tropics.
Speaking at the opening, Dr. Jennifer McElwain said “we are generally interested in using our understanding of natural global-warming events in the geological past to try and make better predictions for what is going to happen in the future”.
Above: Dr Jennifer McElwain at the opening of the Rosemount Environmental Research Station. Photograph: Cyril Byrne
