Developing new crop varieties to feed an expanding world population is one of this century's most challenging research imperatives. Australian scientists are being given the capability to take a leading role. Research into innovative high-yield and disease-resistant crop varieties will be driven at the two state-of-the-art phenomics facilities in Adelaide and Canberra, collectively known as the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility.
The Adelaide node of the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility, The Plant AcceleratorTM, offers:
A range of controlled growth environments in new, high quality facilities.
Over 1 km of conveyors delivering radio-tagged plants automatically to state-of-the art imaging stations controlled by high capacity computing equipment.
Equipment to image shoots in visible, near-infrared and far infrared spectra.
Equipment for fluorescence imaging of shoots.
Equipment to allow near-infrared imaging of pots to obtain a measure of water content in the soil.
Automatic programmable watering to weight of plants on the conveyor system.
Dedicated bioinformatics support to help manage and analyse data.
The Building
The Plant AcceleratorTM is a purpose built plant phenomics facility, which offers a range of greenhouses, high-throughput imaging stations (SmarthousesTM), growth rooms, laboratories and seed storage space. Its double glazed UV permeable acrylic skin provides good insulation properties and allows for UV penetration. A number of water types are available including rain water and recycled water.
The building offers 34 temperature controlled greenhouses in PC2 and non-PC2 environments, including:
Type
Qty
Description
Available size/s
STD
22
Standard greenhouses (Evaporative and refrigerated air-conditioning available)
VIP rooms are fitted with blackout curtains. The humidity is kept between 50%-90% (refrigerated A/C and evaporative cooling) VIP PC2 SpecsVIP Non-PC2 Specs
23 sqm
RICE
2
Greenhouses suitable for growing rice. Humidity is kept at 50%-90% (refrigerated A/C and evaporative cooling) RICE PC2 Specs
The building contains two large areas referred to as SmarthousesTM, which offer a conveyor system and imaging stations (LemnaTec Scanalyzer) for the non-destructive phenotyping of plants.
A total of 2,400 carts can be transported at any given time on the conveyor system via five imaging chambers:
Far infrared - Leaf temperature
Near infrared - Leaf water content
Near infrared (roots) - Soil water content
Visible light (RGB) - Shoot mass, leaf number, shape, angle, other morphometric data, and leaf colour and senescence
Fluorescence imaging - Plant health (state of chlorophyll)
The Adelaide node of the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility, 
The Plant AcceleratorTM is a purpose built plant phenomics facility, which offers a range of greenhouses, high-throughput imaging stations (