climate chambers
Located in the basement of the school and research institute HEPIA (Haute école du paysage, d’ingénierie et d’architecture), experiments are made in several climate chambers, to analyze the increasing impacts of various insects and plants on agriculture production. These chambers allow experimentation with different climate scenarios, reproducing the fall of temperature between day and night, testing different humidity rate and even the level of carbon dioxide, to see how different species react to these conditions. The insect and plant species that are potentially harmful to agriculture are subject to a particularly close attention, such as the « devil bug » (Halyomorpha Halys) that damages apple and pear orchards. (AG)
Image: One of the climate chambers running tests at HEPIA, Geneva. Photo: TAAG.
See also: Devil bug, Asian long-horned beetle, Black List, Himalayan balsam
Related interview: Sophie Rochefort