The design of the open top chamber resemblance like a cone with a frustum at the top to allow natural convectional air flows. With this design it is easy to maintain and control humidity and temperature. Further, in order to promote grown, CO2 gas is circulated with the help of blowers and distribution louvres to ensure even spread. A precision CO2 analyzer takes care of monitoring the percentage of carbon dioxide in the air and the device is also linked to automatic computer controlled valves for unattended operation.
The purpose of Open Top Chamber (OTCs) is to study response of plants in high CO2 and other gas in environment with precise control and regulation of desired CO2, Temp and humidity inside the OTCs. These are plastic enclosures, with an open top, constructed with GI pipe frame covered by panels of Polycarbonate Sheet. Air is pulled into the bottom of the chamber, enriched with CO2, and then blown through the open top of the chamber. They are relatively inexpensive to construct and maintain, however, they are not appropriate for the study of large vegetation (e.g. forest ecosystems).
Open Top Chambers (OTCs) is an innovative and cost effective approach to investigate effects of elevated CO2, Temperature and Humidity on the growth dynamics and yield response of plants.
The CO2 gas is supplied to the chambers through CO2 gas cylinders supply and maintained at set levels of PPM using manifold gas regulators, pressure pipelines, solenoid valves, sampler, pump, CO2 analyzer, PC connected monitor control and data acquisition (SCADA).
The data generated by OTCs are more realistic for impact assessment analysis of rising atmospheric CO2 and temperature on plants for developing models to predict the responses for future climatic conditions.