Cammarisano Lab of CEA - Why CEA in Research?

Controlled environment agriculture (CEA) can be used to eliminate many common growing constraints or limitations that crops would traditionally face in the field, such as, but not limited to: water and light availability, temperature, pests and disease, seasonality of crop, herbivory, issues with soil fertility, and more. As a result, research in CEA is primarily performed to inform cultivation in regions where field production is less feasible. Controlled environments are also excellent settings to perform initial experiments in, as it is easier to see the effect of a treatment when all other growing conditions are fixed.

This page highlights a few recurring themes in our projects; more will emerge as our lab continues to develop.

Vision and Mission

Our research focuses on using CEA to understand how plants respond to their environment and how those responses can be steered across systems, from nurseries and greenhouses to indoor and vertical farms. We focus on plant physiology and the strategic use of mild stress to improve crop quality, resilience, and resource-use efficiency. We study aerial conditions such as light, temperature, and vapor pressure deficit (VPD), together with root-zone factors including water, nutrients, and salinity, across both soil-based and soilless systems. We use soilless cultivation systems such as hydroponics to study and refine root‑zone control of water and nutrients. Through this optimization, we advance strategies that improve plant performance and system sustainability, especially important in regions like California where soil salinity and contamination can limit productivity. We combine physiological, morphological, agronomical, and biochemical approaches with non-invasive measurements to make crop production more sustainable and efficient.

No Pain, More Gain: The Science of Environmental Stress Physiology

Much of our research centers on plant stress physiology because controlled environment agriculture (CEA) offers a unique opportunity to intentionally apply and manage mild, reversible stress to improve crop performance and quality. We study abiotic stresses such as light, temperature and salinity to understand how plants respond at physiological and biochemical levels. Rather than avoiding stress entirely, our work explores how carefully controlled stress can enhance nutritional quality, increase resilience, and improve plant performance without reducing yield. This approach contributes to Plant physiology by elucidating mechanisms of response to the environment and to CEA by optimizing resource use (e.g., water and nutrients), reducing reliance on chemical inputs (e.g., growth regulators), enhancing crop quality traits such as antioxidants, pigments, and flavor. Ultimately, our goal is to shift stress from being a limitation to being a precision tool in crop management.