Planned Facilities
Green Mountain Energy Sun Club Greenhouse
Greenhouse Size: 30 x 48 feet
Project Overview
The building will support the initiation of a seed propagation program to increase knowledge of coastal prairie plants and make more species available for continued restoration projects. The greenhouse construction is supported by a $200,000 donation from .
The 30 x 48 foot facility will allow UH Coastal Center researchers to carry out experiments in controlled conditions, with protection from the elements. The greenhouse will support research of prairie biodiversity allowing the study of species that are more difficult to germinate and that are endangered, threatened or less common.
Potential Research Topics
- Native prairie ecology
- Feedback between soil microbes and prairie plants
- Improvement of coastal prairie plant propagation
Support of Coastal Prairie Restoration
Efforts to restore prairies are limited by an insufficient quantity of geographically appropriate seed and a lack of species diversity in available seed. Research in Green Mountain Energy Sun Club Greenhouse, in cooperation with allied researchers, will address these limitations and improve coastal prairie restoration/creation statewide. Prairies provide a variety of ecosystem services to humanity, including carbon sequestration in the soil and flood control by absorbing and slowing overland flow of large amounts of water during rainy periods.