News: New Facility Allows Researchers To Replicate Wind And Rain To Study Climate Impact On Plants (UK).

Published 12:00 AM EST, Fri Jul 18, 2025 New advanced plant growth chambers at the University of Exeter will help scientists recreate climate conditions including wind and rain to advance research into global food security problems. The new facility aims to boost plant research to address an urgent global crisis.

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The University of Exeter has launched the Global Meteorological Simulator (GMS), a £1.5 million state-of-the-art facility designed to replicate complex weather conditions such as wind, rain, mist, and temperature fluctuations in controlled environments. This facility, funded by the BBSRC and the university, comprises four separate growth chambers, each capable of simulating different weather scenarios. For the first time, researchers can control a broad range of natural variables in a lab setting, overcoming limitations of traditional growth chambers and field experiments. This innovation enables more accurate studies of plant-environment interactions and advances efforts to address global food security challenges.

The GMS will play a pivotal role in investigating plant health, disease transmission, pollination, and climate adaptability. It allows researchers to observe how environmental factors influence the spread of pathogens, survival of microbial treatments, and the behaviors of critical species like bees. Scientists will also test genetically modified crops under realistic, fluctuating conditions to better identify traits that enhance disease resistance, resilience, and productivity. These insights are critical to understanding how crops such as wheat, rice, bananas, and maize will perform under future climate scenarios.

Importantly, the simulator is not exclusive to the University of Exeter—it is accessible to the global research community, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration. By enabling repeatable, high-resolution studies on everything from algae behavior to bee foraging efficiency, the GMS marks a major leap forward in the UK’s plant science capacity. It opens new avenues for precise forecasting of disease outbreaks, pollinator decline, and crop resilience under climate stress. The GMS holds substantial potential for cannabis research and industry applications, particularly in the areas of disease modeling, climate resilience, and phenotype stability. Cannabis is sensitive to environmental stressors such as high humidity, wind, and rainfall—all of which influence pathogen load (e.g., powdery mildew, botrytis), nutrient uptake, and cannabinoid expression. This facility offers a model for testing cultivars under realistic, variable climate conditions, helping breeders develop resilient, high-performing strains for both indoor and outdoor markets. Moreover, it enables research into how changing weather affects pollination (for seed crops), pesticide persistence, and the efficacy of biocontrol agents. For an industry increasingly focused on sustainability, standardization, and large-scale cultivation, access to such simulators could support more reliable production and climate-smart cultivation strategies, particularly as cannabis markets expand into regions with unstable or extreme weather conditions. Source: Hortidaily