New collaborative study led by @ifacisabel.bsky.social and @cristobaluauy.bsky.social, where we developed a new heating system to simulate warmer climates during field trials. This was great fun- check out the summary thread by Isabel Faci, below! @johninnescentre.bsky.social

Hi Susana, thanks for the question! The system tripped as a safety measure in response to internal degradation of the heaters during prolonged outdoor use (e.g. wiring insulation damage and overheating). We describe this in the Technical limitations section, along with potential solutions.

And a big thank you to our funders for supporting this work: ERC @ec.europa.eu, BBSRC @ukri.org, and @johninnescentre.bsky.social.

Huge thank you to the amazing team behind this work, especially Paul Rogerson, who led the electrical engineering effort.

With @cristobaluauy.bsky.social @simmojsimmo.bsky.social @antdodd.bsky.social, Darryl Playford and Martyn Hewitt 🙏

Despite this, the heating system induced measurable phenotypic effects in wheat, such as earlier heading ⏮️

There’s still room for improvement, but we hope this version helps move things forward for field-based climate experiments 🌡🌱

Some technical challenges remain!
We observed repeated heater failures under continuous use. The likely causes are now understood, and we’re working with the manufacturer on design adjustments for future deployments 🛠

The thermal image gives a sense of heat distribution, but we also quantified temperature differences across time and space using multiple temperature loggers.

Here’s a figure showing ΔT (heated 🔴 – control 🔵) across the trial

We adapted the established T-FACE design (Kimball et al., 2005) to meet UK/EU outdoor electrical regulations, working with engineers to rebuild key components.

The system uses six UKCA/CE-certified infrared heaters in a hexagon, with real-time canopy temperature feedback to maintain a target ΔT.

Our new preprint is out on bioRxiv!
A regulation-compliant infrared heating system for UK field trials 🌾🔥

doi.org/10.64898/202...

Here’s what it looked like ↓