F. Miglietta et al., FREE-AIR CO2 ENRICHMENT OF POTATO (SOLANUM-TUBEROSUM, L.) - DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE OF THE CO2-FUMIGATION SYSTEM, Global change biology, 3(5), 1997, pp. 417-427
Free Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) systems are used to fumigate unconfined
field plots with CO2. As these installations can treat a sufficiently
large area without interfering with natural climatic conditions, they
are considered important tools for global change research worldwide.
However, there is general consensus that elevated capital costs of exi
sting FACE systems as well as high running costs may prevent their app
lication at the required level of scale. A new and small FACE system t
hat was designed to reduce both capital costs and CO2 use, is describe
d in this paper. Due to its intermediate size (8 m diameter) between t
he smaller Mini-FACE systems that were developed in Italy and the larg
er systems designed by the Brookhaven National Laboratory in the USA,
it was named Mid-FACE. The Mid-FACE was at first developed as a protot
ype and then used to enrich field grown potato crops in a CO2 concentr
ation gradient experimental design. Technical details of a Mid-FACE pr
ototype and of the operational set-up are presented in this paper toge
ther with performance data in terms of temporal and spatial control of
CO2 concentrations within the experimental area.