Air Circulation and Heat Exchange Under Reduced Pressures

Heat exchange rates decrease non-linearly with reductions in atmospheric pressure. This decrease creates risk of thermal stress (elevated leaf temperatures) for plants under reduced pressures. Forced convection (fans) significantly increases heat exchange rate under almost all pressures except below ~ 10 kPa. Plant cultivation techniques under reduced pressures will require forced convection. The cooling curve technique is a reliable means of assessing the influence of environmental variables like pressure and gravity on gas exchange of plant. These results represent the extremes of gas exchange conditions for simple systems under variable pressures. In reality, dense plant canopies will exhibit responses in between these extremes. More research is needed to understand the dependence of forced convection on atmospheric pressure. The overall thermal balance model should include latent and radiative exchange components.