Illuminating future food production; the impacts of tuneable artificial lighting on food crop biology and productivity

Supervisors Paul Robson ([Email Address Removed])
Industrial partner: QinetiQ

In the future more people will live in cities with the World Health Organisation predicting that 70% of the global population will be living in towns and cities by 2050. The challenge will be to ensure the welfare of the urban population and safeguard the natural environment. A part of the solution will be to grow food within the city and so we need to consider how plants and crops can grow in the urban and peri-urban space. This brings advantages in terms of sustainability through reducing transportation costs of food, improving food security and the city environment for citizens. Modern technologies such as photovoltaics and LED lighting mean that buildings can generate electricity which can be used to grow plants and crops in areas of poor or no light. The project will develop the science to underpin such urban agriculture.
The advent of tuneable LED lighting opens up new avenues by studying the effect of light wavelength combinations and irradiance to control productivity and development as well as applied opportunities for rethinking the way that we can grow food and renature cities. Natural sunlight invariably provides more light than photosynthesis can utilise and plants expend energy in dissipating potentially phototoxic light. In contrast, LEDs can be tuned to provide the irradiance and wavelengths that are most biologically appropriate for yield and crop quality without overloading photosynthesis.
The student will gain experience of plant ecophysiology, molecular biology and data analysis. Collaboration with Qinetiq will provide experience of working with industry and an opportunity to spend time at the commercial partner thereby providing enhanced career development opportunities. Qinetiq have an emerging interest in future cities including urban agriculture and food security. In addition this project will link with a new Welsh National Research Network “Plants and Architecture” which is a multidisciplinary project including plant biology, architecture and materials science to create new sustainable products, improve agriculture and improve the greening of cities.
The project will determine the minimum energetic requirement of supplemental lighting across a range of crops and will investigate the biological effects of wavelengths beyond those responsible for driving photosynthesis. The project will examine the significance of the wavelengths in the middle of the visible spectrum, traditionally regarded as less biologically active but now an emerging research area. The project will use tuneable LED arrays to examine in combination the energetic and biological impact of variation in irradiance and wavelength on plant development and yield including how light can be used to improve the nutritional quality of crops. The effect of variation in spectral quality and irradiance will be determined using matched LED arrays which will be combined with monitoring photosynthetic yield for productivity and metabolomics analysis to understand the metabolic flux under different light treatments.
Light is not just a resource that powers photosynthesis but is a regulator of development. The shift to using more LED based production allows the potential of light regulation of plant development to be fully utilised. The activities of signalling pathways stem from the action of light on photoreceptors and therefore we will test the extent to which we can phenocopy gene activity by manipulating light alone. Exposing plants to unusual combinations of light irradiance and periodicity that is possible through tuneable multispectral LED arrays may allow the generation of ideotypes for example dwarfed, early flowering plants that would normally be produced through years of breeding. Gene expression will be compared as well as phenotype to assess the impact of light wavelength especially in relation to phenocopying.

This PhD studentship provides an opportunity to gain experience in fundamental science that has the potential to deliver significant impact and to join an established dynamic team developing sustainable crops for bioenergy and biorenewables http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/ibers/research/ei/. This team is expanding to develop new multidisciplinary research through the Low Carbon Energy and Environment, National Research Networks http://www.nrn-lcee.ac.uk/. The link with QinetiQ provides the student with an opportunity to examine how fundamental research may be translated into commercial and impactful solutions within the urban environment and will enhance future employability.