Glasshouse films with adjustable light transmittance have the potential to reduce the high energy cost for greenhouse horticulture operations. Whether these films compromise the quantity and quality of light transmission for photosynthesis and crop yield, remains unclear. A “Smart Glass” film ULR-80 (SG) was applied to a high-tech greenhouse horticulture facility and two experimental trials were conducted by growing eggplant () using commercial vertical cultivation and management practices. SG blocked 85% of ultraviolet (UV), 58% of far-red, and 26% of red light, leading to an overall reduction of 19% in photosynthetically active radiation (PAR, 380 - 699 nm) and a 25% reduction in total season fruit yield. There was a 53% (season mean) reduction in short-wave radiation (385 nm to 2105 nm upward; 295 to 2685 nm downward) that generated a net reduction in heat load and water and nutrient consumption that improved energy and resource use efficiency. Eggplant adjusted to the altered SG light environment via decreased maximum light-saturated photosynthetic rates () and lower xanthophyll de-epoxidation state. The shift in light characteristics under SG led to reduced photosynthesis, which may have reduced source (leaf) to sink (fruit) carbon distribution, increased fruit abortion and decreased fruit yield, but did not affect nutritional quality. We conclude that SG increases energy and resource use efficiency, without affecting fruit quality, but the reduction in photosynthesis and eggplant yield is high. The solution is to re-engineer the SG to increase penetration of UV and PAR, while maintaining blockage of glasshouse heat gain.

Temperature and precipitation regimes are rapidly changing, resulting in forest dieback and local extinction events, particularly in Mediterranean-type climates. Strategic forest management approaches that enhance forests’ resilience to future climates are urgently required, however adaptation to climates in heterogeneous landscapes with multiple selection pressures may be complex. For widespread trees in Mediterranean-type climates we hypothesized that patterns of local adaptation are associated with climate; precipitation is a stronger factor of adaptation than temperature; functionally related genes show similar signatures of adaptation; and adaptive variants are independently sorting across the landscape. To test our hypotheses, we sampled 28 populations across the geographic and climatic distribution of Eucalyptus marginata (jarrah), in south-west Western Australia, and obtained 13,534 independent single nucleotide polymorphic (SNP) markers across the genome. While overall levels of population differentiation were low (FST=0.04), environmental association analyses found a total of 2,336 unique SNPs potentially associated with five climate variables of temperature and precipitation. Allelic turnover was identified for SNPs associated with temperate seasonality and mean precipitation of the warmest quarter (39.2% and 36.9% deviance explained, respectively), suggesting that both temperature and precipitation are important factors in adaptation. SNPs within similarly function genes, according to gene ontology enrichment analysis, had analogous allelic turnover along climate gradients, while SNPs among temperature and precipitation variables had orthogonal patterns of adaptation. These contrasting patterns of adaptation provide evidence that there may be standing genomic variation adapted to changing climates, providing the substrate needed to promote adaptive management strategies to bolster forest resilience in the future.