About
The UCI Greenhouse is a 10,000-square-foot growth facility that supports teaching and research needs for the School of Biological Sciences. The Greenhouse is divided into 15 growth areas that are individually programmable for temperature. Greenhouse Staff provides watering, pest management, and basic maintenance for plants used in research and teaching. Additional facilities include common-use lab space, a lath house adjacent to the Greenhouse for plants requiring ambient conditions, an autoclave for soil sterilization, and storage space for greenhouse supplies, which are provided by investigators.
To request space in the UCI Greenhouse, please fill out the form below and send the completed document to jrodart1@uci.edu. Please also review the greenhouse user guidelines and the pesticide safety contract that are linked below.
Greenhouse Projects
Natalie Smith, PhD student, Faiola/Nizkorodov Labs
Picture caption: Canary Island Pines, commonly used in urban landscaping, emit gas-phase terpenes that contribute to atmospheric particle production. Natalie is studying how insect herbivory affects important climate-relevant properties of the particles formed from the pine emissions.
Pine trees emit various gases, such as terpenes, that can react in the atmosphere to form particulate matter. These particles are important because they can impact climate, human health, and visibility. The gases emitted from pine trees change when the plant experiences stress, such as feeding by herbivorous insects. This change in gas phase emissions affects particle composition and physical properties. For example, our research has shown that particles generated from stressed plant emissions induced by aphid herbivory are more viscous and undergo liquid-liquid phase separation across a wider range of humidity conditions. These particle properties influence their ability to act as cloud and ice nuclei, and contribute to cloud formation processes.
Adriana Briscoe’s Lab
Picture caption: A picture of Heliconius charitonia sitting on a Psiguria inflorescence photographed in the UCI greenhouse in 2019 with a pollen load on it’s proboscis.
Adriana Briscoe’s lab studies the evolution of wing coloration and color vision behavior in butterflies. Heliconius are one of the groups of butterflies her lab investigates in UCI’s greenhouse. Heliconius adults are usual among butterflies in that besides feeding on nectar from flowers, they also feed on pollen, which they collect and digest extra orally on their proboscis. Pollen feeding greatly expands the life span of adult Heliconius butterflies from a few weeks to over 90 days and permits females to lay many more eggs than they would have the resources to produce without pollen.
Restoration of “The Bowl”, Center for Environmental Biology (CEB)
Picture caption: Native seedlings are grown in the greenhouse and used for restoration of park land in Orange County.
One of the goals of the restoration project at “The Bowl” in Crystal Cove State Park is to determine whether traits of native plants influence their establishment and survival in the restoration of a degraded site in Crystal Cove State Park. CEB students and staff worked with Crystal Cove State Park ecologists to design the experiment. Native plants were grown in the UCI greenhouse and transplanted into the field at Crystal Cove. Preliminary results suggest that a diverse mix of native plants with a variety of functional traits resulted in the highest native cover at the site.
Drought Net Project, Center for Environmental Biology (CEB)
Picture caption: Native shrubs and herbaceous plants are grown in the greenhouse to be transplanted to the Drought Net site at the UCI Ecological Preserve.
The purpose of the Drought Net restoration experiment is to determine whether seed source influences the establishment, survival, growth, and reproduction of native plants under manipulated rainfall regimes. Environmental Collaboratory researchers collected seeds of several native species from dry, inland sites as well as moist coastal sites, and grew them in the UCI greenhouse. We transplanted replicate individuals into water manipulation plots at the UCI Ecological Preserve. One team of MCRS students measured physiological traits of seedlings growing in the greenhouse. Preliminary results indicate differences in traits and ability to withstand drought based on seed source.
Get in Touch
If you have questions about the UCI Greenhouse, please contact:
Building 514, Room 102
(949) 824-6049
