SCIENTIFIC RESPONSIBLE
Technical manager
Technical manager
The Estacion Experimental del Zaidin (EEZ), a centre of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), has the mission to carry out cutting-edge research in Agricultural Sciences. To support this mission, it operates a Greenhouse and Growth Chambers Service (GGCS), which allows research under different controlled environmental conditions (photoperiod, lighting, humidity, temperature, sterile substrates, atmospheric CO2 levels, etc) and to work with pathogens and pests). Its primary objective is to provide advanced facilities to support the research needs of the EEZ scientific groups, external users from other Centres and Institutions, and companies that collaborate with EEZ groups or operate independently. These facilities enable a wide range of cultivation trials to investigate the impact of different adverse environmental conditions related to climate change -such as temperature, drought, salinity-or contamination with heavy metals, xenobiotics and the impact of different phytopathogens and pests on agronomically important plant species, as well as their interaction with beneficial soil microorganisms.
The GGCS consists of 10 greenhouses and 15 walk-in growing chambers. Each greenhouse comprises the glass greenhouse structure itself and a small support room used for handling the materials required for plant cultivation, such as substrates, plastic materials, scales, etc. The glass enclosure has two rows of platforms on either side, leaving a central corridor, with a useful surface area for plant placement that ranges from 14 m2 (8 greenhouses) and 21 m2 (2 greenhouses). Additionally, three of the greenhouses are equipped for hydroponic cultivation.
The 10 greenhouses offer a total surface area of 154 m2 of useful platforms for plant cultivation. All are equipped with additional artificial light (except for greenhouse 5) to complement the photoperiod during the winter season, and Inverter air conditioning and ventilation systems. They are also equipped with automated greenhouse canopies, whose deployment/redeployment is controlled by wind, rain, illumination and temperature sensors. The growth chambers are walk-in type with controllable climatic conditions of temperature and LED illumination and ventilation. Each chamber consists of two platforms subdivided into rafts where the plant crops are placed, with a useful surface area of between 8 and 10 m2, offering a total surface area of approximately 150 m2. All the chambers and greenhouses of the Service are authorised for the confined use of GMOs and p type 1 phytopathogens (Authorisation A/ES/12/I-25) by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment, and some of them, such as Greenhouses 1 and 2, and chambers 3 and 4, are authorized for type 2 use (Authorisation A/ES/12/I-08). Currently, two of the chambers are specifically dedicated to the cultivation of Arabidopsis, one under short-day and another under long-day conditions, and one to in vitro cultivation. Another is equipped with a phenotyping platform in which different sensors (CCD, thermal or multispectral cameras) can be incorporated for real-time assessment of the physiological state of the plant under study and is exclusively dedicated to the cultivation of plants infected with pathogenic bacteria. In addition, there is a chamber dedicated to the cultivation of plants infected with phytopathogenic fungi. Two other chambers are conditioned for climate change studies (high environmental CO2 and temperature), and the rest of the chambers are used for the cultivation of different species of agronomic interest.
Additionally, the service is equipped with a state-of-the-art Imaging Fluorimeter (Imaging PAM) and a modern IRGA equipped with a fluorimeter camera accessory, both for non-invasive spatial and temporal monitoring of a wide range of photosynthetic parameters, which are available to all users after booking through the equipment booking website (eez intranet). The service also has a conventional autoclave, a tindalyser and a horizontal autoclave for the sterilization of materials, substrates and culture waste, in accordance with the relevant biosafety standards (see downloadable documents for GGCG on this page), as well as a washing and disinfection facility for self-service users of culture material. It also has a system for washing the roots of large and medium-sized pots for users. The rules for using this equipment can be found in the downloadable documents section of GGCG on this page.
The Service is governed by specific rules of use (see downloadable documents on this page) and applies rates per m2/week. These rates are revised annually and published on the CSIC website for all the organisation's services. The use of space in the greenhouses and chambers requires prior reservation via the Centre's intranet. Users must log in with their access to the online application available on its website. (http://reservas.eez.csic.es/) Once in this application, the occupied and free space, or pre-reserved space, is visible to all users, with full accessibility to the information of each user's reservation, in terms of the type and characteristics of each trial (plant species, type of substrate, treatment with biostimulants (rhizobia, mycorrhizae, PGPR), phytopathogenic agents (viruses, bacteria, fungi) or pests (phytophagous insects). Each user must select the desired area or the complete installation, if their trials require it, filling in the required fields with information on the characteristics of their trials, principal investigator, internal account number and project code to which the expenses for use per m2/week will be invoiced.
The management of the service is the responsibility of its scientific manager, a member of the research staff, who is in charge of the economic control and is supported and supervised by the Centre’s management for invoicing charges to the respective research projects. The scientific manager is also responsible for the appropriate use, based on the rules of use that were approved by the Board of the Institute, and, eventually, for drawing up proposals for obtaining funding through relevant infrastructure calls to improve the facilities.
The technical staff is in charge of overseeing control, biosafety, technical maintenance, management, and user support to ensure the proper use and operation of the facilities and equipment, according to a list of assigned tasks (see downloadable document on this page). The technical staff is the only one authorised to carry out the switching on and off of the installations, as well as changing the control of the climatic conditions, including the control of the greenhouse canopies. Any manipulation of these controls by the user is expressly forbidden. All tasks will be requested by the users and/or scientific responsible, through the online application of assistance reports, by means of GLPI software, hosted on the booking website (http://reservas.eez.csic.es/). Requests will be dealt with by the technical staff in order of request and/or urgency criteria, under the supervision of the scientific manager of the Service.
2025
|
GROWING CHAMBERS |
EEZ |
CSIC Centres |
OPIS |
Private Company |
|
euros m2/week |
7.00 |
8.21 |
20.59 |
20.55 |
|
INVERNADEROS |
|
|
|
|
|
euros m2/week |
4.00 |
4.70 |
17.01 |
18.63 |