Design and application of a free-air carbon dioxide enrichment facility

Abstract

Growth chambers and other enclosures used in plant physiology and growth studies tend to introduce chamber effects that alter the microclimate around the plants compared with the natural environment. A free-air (chamberless) carbon dioxide enrichment (FACE) system has been developed by Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) to provide controlled fumigation conditions while minimizing the potential to impose a discernible chamber effect. This system is capable of exposing large numbers of field-grown plants to elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) from seedling emergence until physiologic maturity. A FACE User Facility was established at the Maricopa Agricultural Center, University of Arizona, for continuous enrichment of CO2 at a set point of 550 μmol mol−1 during daylight hours throughout the cotton crop growing seasons of 1989–1991. The facility consisted of four circular BNL FACE arrays and associated equipment placed in a commercial cotton plantation. FACE array diameters of 23, 25, and 27 m were tested. The FACE facility included the ability to operate the experimental plots under two watering regimes using an automated, sub-surface irrigation system. CO2 was stored in a 48 000 kg receiver and vaporized with a heat exchanger that used water at ambient temperature as the energy source. The 1 min average CO2 concentration was held to within ±20% of the set point more than 98% of the time that the arrays were operating during all three seasons. In 1991, the long term average CO2 concentration measured at 63 points throughout the volume of a 20 m diameter experimental plot (ground to canopy top) centered within a 25 m diameter FACE array was 568 μmol mol−1. All of the FACE arrays operated for more than 99% of the planned experimental period in 1991. These 3 years of operation have demonstrated that the BNL FACE technology can be used as a basis for a large scale facility devoted to studying the fate of carbon in the terrestrial environment.