Characterization of Light Quantity and Quality at the OSU Shade Facility.

Over the past nine years, shade stress research has been conducted at the OSU Turfgrass Research Center in Stillwater, OK, in order to screen bermudagrass germplasm for improved shade tolerance.  The facility that has been developed in that time uses a combination of shade sources: deciduous trees along the eastern and southern borders, evergreen treens along the western border, and neutral shade fabric installed on a hoophouse structure overhead.  As built, the facility more accurately simulates real-world shaded turf environments by including tree root competition and wind obstruction while potentially sacrificing experimental control compared to conventional shade fabric-based experiments.  This poster will discuss the diurnal variablity of available PAR, spectral properties of incoming radiation, and pertinent microclimatic properties of the facility.