A framework of artificial light management for optimal plant development for smart greenhouse application

PLoS One. 2021 Dec 13;16(12):e0261281. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0261281. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Smart greenhouse farming has emerged as one of the solutions to global food security, where farming productivity can be managed and improved in an automated manner. While it is known that plant development is highly dependent on the quantity and quality of light exposure, the specific impact of the different light properties is yet to be fully understood. In this study, using the model plant Arabidopsis, we systematically investigate how six different light properties (i.e., photoperiod, light offset, intensity, phase of dawn, duration of twilight and period) would affect plant development i.e., flowering time and hypocotyl (seedling stem) elongation using an established mathematical model of the plant circadian system relating light input to flowering time and hypocotyl elongation outputs for smart greenhouse application. We vary each of the light properties individually and then collectively to understand their effect on plant development. Our analyses show in comparison to the nominal value, the photoperiod of 18 hours, period of 24 hours, no light offset, phase of dawn of 0 hour, duration of twilight of 0.05 hour and a reduced light intensity of 1% are able to improve by at least 30% in days to flower (from 32.52 days to 20.61 days) and hypocotyl length (from 1.90 mm to 1.19mm) with the added benefit of reducing energy consumption by at least 15% (from 4.27 MWh/year to 3.62 MWh/year). These findings could provide beneficial solutions to the smart greenhouse farming industries in terms of achieving enhanced productivity while consuming less energy.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Agriculture / methods*
  • Arabidopsis / growth & development
  • Arabidopsis / metabolism
  • Arabidopsis / radiation effects
  • Arabidopsis Proteins / metabolism
  • Arabidopsis Proteins / radiation effects
  • Automation / methods
  • Circadian Clocks / genetics
  • Circadian Rhythm / genetics
  • Flowers / metabolism
  • Gene Expression / genetics
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / genetics
  • Light
  • Lighting / methods*
  • Plant Development / physiology*
  • Seedlings / metabolism

Substances

  • Arabidopsis Proteins

Grants and funding

MF acknowledges funding from the Royal Society via research grant RGS/R2/180195 (https://royalsociety.org/). HA is funded through the Sêr Cymru programme by Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO) under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (https://gov.wales/ser-cymru). The funders have no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.