Langley greenhouse sprouts life on Oakland rooftop

Pitt is home to more than 3,000 square feet of state-of-the-art greenhouse research facilities, but if students don’t look up while walking along Fifth Avenue, they might just miss it.

“Without the view of the greenhouses glowing through the dark and snow of winter, some may even forget that they are there,” biological science professor Tia-Lynn Ashman said.

The year-round facility that sits atop Langley Hall is utilized to perform climate-controlled research by teams of faculty, undergraduate assistants, post-doctorates, graduate students and lab managers in the Ecology and Evolution curriculum in Pitt’s Department of Biological Sciences.

Inside the glass walls that provide a panoramic of the Oakland landscape, hundreds of square black pots sit on long metal tables. Each black pot features a small plant poking out from the soil. Researchers in the lab hover over the tiny plants, pipettes in hand, performing experiments.

Many undergraduates and graduate students benefit from using these greenhouses to conduct their research projects, where the carefully controlled environment allows for large numbers of plants to be treated in the same experiment.

Ph.D. candidate Alison Hale researches under biological sciences professor Susan Kalisz and is currently conducting an experiment to determine the effect of garlic mustard — an aggressive plant — on the growth of natively grown plants and mycorrhizal fungi sharing an ecosystem.

Working with multiple large pots and the support of additional shade cloth to protect the native forest-grown plants from the sun, Hale’s research to date has shown that chemicals from garlic mustard kill the mycorrhizal fungi in the soil, which disrupts the flow of nutrients and water to the native plant. This results in declines in photosynthesis, loss of carbohydrate storage and decreased root growth, which indicates a sharp decline in the health of the native plants.

Hale said the greenhouse is well-managed and a great space to do research, as it is equipped with four research bays and a headhouse — a room where potting, mixing soil, harvesting plants and other activities can be done.

“I prefer to work in a greenhouse because it can’t rain inside the bays,” Hale said. “The physiological measurements that I do require some equipment that cannot get wet, so the greenhouse is a perfect place for me to work.”

Arts and Sciences Construction Coordinator Frank Vincunas said in an email that the greenhouses feature mechanical systems that are computer-controlled based on a weather station located on the Langley Hall roof.

The computerized station regulates the greenhouse chambers through environmental controls, including variable set points for temperature, humidity, and light levels to be accessed through central, satellite and remote computers.

The environmental control system also features a fogging system, perimeter heating system, horizontal airflow fans and chilled water cooling units. The atmosphere can also be manipulated through the use of motorized retractable shades, heat retention roof curtain systems and motorized roof and sidewall vents.

Plant Growth Facilities Manager Ellen York stressed the importance of utilizing the previously unoccupied rooftop space for the constantly evolving research.

“Space is at a premium in this urban campus, and biologists must do large experiments to get valid data,” she said. “The staff is quite busy, as plants, pests and research are growing at a feverish pace.”

Ashman said that a wide array of research, graduate work like Hale’s and undergraduate education is supported within the facilities.

“At an institution like the University of Pittsburgh, where research and teaching are our mission, the inclusion of graduates and undergraduates in our research facilities are certainly an inherent part in our endeavor to teach our future scientists,” Ashman said. “We have long-term research projects, but some of the spaces also contain the growth of permanent plant collections, which I am able to take into my plant biology classroom to add to the educational component.”

The greenhouse complex has evolved over time with chambers constructed in various phases in the 1960s, the mid-’90s and the most recent addition, which was completed last spring.

According to Vincunas, the $1.6 million addition took a little over a year to design and construct and adds approximately 1,500 square feet of greenhouse space located above the Langley Hall bridge to the already existing chambers on the roof.

The complex still houses a greenhouse on the penthouse level of Langley Hall that was part of the original building, constructed in 1959.

Paula Grabowski, chairwoman of the Department of Biological Sciences, said in an email that the department is pleased with the facilities and the role that the University’s investment in the resource plays for research and science education. She said the cutting-edge research allows for long-term advancements in understanding for the field.

Because flowering plants represent a sizeable portion of the human food supply, researchers focus on the ways the plants react to environmental changes, such as temperature change or disease, and work to apply their findings to solving future problems.

“The long-term benefits of this type of research will have an impact on sustainability, that is, the ability to sustain biodiversity, and the basic food supply, in the face of global climate change,” Grabowski said. “It will also allow researchers to understand how to manipulate plants using natural means so they can remain fit and healthy in different types of hostile or stressful environments.”

Ashman uses the functioning greenhouses to research flowering plants from the perspective of how their genetic makeup affects the evolution of their sexual nature, which in turn influences the production of seeds and fruit. Through her strawberry project, Ashman takes advantage of the climate-controlled space to grow plants from across the globe.

“The strawberries that you may find on your plate are artificially cultivated,” she said. “They are produced by taking two strands native to the Americas — one from north and one from south — so there is a small window into their genetic base.”

In the chambers, Ashman grows multiple species of strawberries and, with the ability to grow plants that would not normally survive frigid Pittsburgh winters or sweltering Pittsburgh summers, studies the sustainability of the crops in the face of climate change.

“I guess you could say that the greenhouses open up a world of possibility in our research,” she said. “We grow plants from California, the pacific northwest, Japan and other places across the world.”

Grabowski said that the facilities and research are also extended to members of the community to promote an interest in the biological sciences. A project called “The Strawberry Caper” is extended to middle school teachers who are trained to share the experience of using reasoning to solve clues with middle school students.

“It is a wonderful way to capture the imagination and interest of teenagers when they might be thinking that scientists are nerds,” she said.

Future departmental researching plans for the greenhouses seek to expand the current plant studies to include the breeding of exotic butterflies. While the studies of flowering plants to understand the genetic basis of their adaptability and evolution will continue under Professor Ashman and Professor Kalisz, new biological sciences assistant professor Nate Morehouse will be joining the research teams to study how butterfly wings from all over the world evolve to display bright colors.

While there are no current plans to expand the Life Science Complex due to the exhausted roof space, other sites for further greenhouse development could be made available elsewhere on campus in the future.