Physiological Aspects of Integrated Crop Production in Advanced Life Support Systems

A deterministic model of canopy CO, exchange for a soybean crop has been developed to describe vegetative and reproductive phases of growth. Using this profile as an example, a conceptual model for the design and management of integrated production systems is developed with the objective of dampening both the long term and photo-oscillatory gas exchange dynamics of plant canopies in sealed environments. The resulting conceptual model includes photoperiod offset coupled with staggered planting and attenuated lighting as operational means of achieving stable atmospheric CO, concentrations. The issue of cultural compatibility of crops for integrated production is discussed and an operational scenario is proposed for two production chambers having different crop compositions and photoperiod requirements. The resulting operational scenarios have application to large scale, planetary based bioregenerative life support systems.