Biosphere 2

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Biosphere 2

Biosphere 2 is a manmade closed ecological system in Oracle, Arizona built by Edward P. Bass, Space Biosphere Ventures and others. Constructed between 1987 and 1989, it was used to test if and how people could live and study in a closed biosphere, while carrying out scientific experiments. It explored the possible use of closed biospheres in space colonization, and also allowed the study and manipulation of a biosphere without harming Earth's. The name comes from the idea that it is modeled on "Biosphere 1" - Earth.

Contents

History

Missions

The project conducted two sealed missions; the first from September 26, 1991 to September 26, 1993 and the second for six months in 1994. During the first mission, oxygen levels began falling at a steady pace of 0.5% per month. This continued to the point where the atmosphere inside resembled that of a community at an elevation of over 4,000 feet (1,200 m). Eventually, oxygen levels fell to dangerously low levels, and pure oxygen was pumped in from the outside.

Biosphere 2

Many suspected the drop in oxygen was due to microbes in the soil. The agricultural, savanna and rain forest sections had all been infused with microbes in order to encourage plant growth. It was now felt that these microbes were consuming too much oxygen.

A problem with this theory was that microbes breathing that much oxygen would also be creating a massive amount of carbon dioxide. Yet this jump in CO2 was unaccounted for in the atmosphere readings. Further investigation revealed that the concrete at the base of the facility had been absorbing the carbon dioxide as it cured. This effect absorbed a large portion of the carbon dioxide being produced by the microbes which in turn had been depleting the facility's oxygen supply.

Because oxygen and other supplies were provided the project lost some credibility.

Difficulty of creating successful artificial biospheres

An interesting consequence of the experiment is that it showed the difficulty of copying the functions of the natural capital of the evolved Earth biosphere with infrastructural capital constructed by humans with present technology. Despite expenditure of over $150 million, this attempt at a new biosphere did not sustain eight humans for a prolonged time, while the original sustains billions of humans, besides other organisms.

Columbia University

In 1995 the Biosphere 2 owners transferred management to Columbia University. Since 1996, over 1200 graduate students have spent a year in the Biosphere 2 Center (as of 2003). The site has its own hotel and conference center. Columbia has since divested itself of all Biosphere-related responsibilities.

For Sale

As of January 10, 2005 Decisions Investments Corporation, owners of Biosphere 2, have announced that the Biosphere 2 campus is for sale. They would prefer if a research use was found for the complex, but are looking for buyers with different intentions, such as universities, churches, resorts, spas, etc.

Science and engineering

Biosphere 2 from the inside. Seen here are the Savanna (foreground) and Ocean (background) sections.
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Biosphere 2 from the inside. Seen here are the Savanna (foreground) and Ocean (background) sections.
The Coastal Fog Desert section of Biosphere 2. August 2005.
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The Coastal Fog Desert section of Biosphere 2. August 2005.

The scientific method is difficult to apply due to the complexity of the biosphere and the absence of a control. Like Project Apollo, Biosphere 2 is an achievement of engineering rather than science. The above-ground physical structure of Biosphere 2 was made of steel tubing and high-performance glass and steel frames. The frame and glazing materials were designed and made to specification by a firm run by a one-time student of Buckminster Fuller, Peter Pearce (Peter Pearce & Associates).

Value of Earth's biosphere

Some economists have used the price of the Biosphere 2 project as an input to value of life, calculations, and attempts to calculate the total value of all natural capital on Earth (see also: value of Earth). According to them, given that it does at least as good a job at sustaining humans as Biosphere 2, it should be worth at least as much per resident. This leads to a rather large, but finite, price of Earth itself.


The Biosphere 2 Project

Biosphere 2 is a unique, on-going ecological experiment. It is a tightly sealed glass and steel structure on 3.15 acres near Oracle, Arizona in which scientists have created seven complete ecosystems or biomes that mirror those of Earth. The systems include an ocean, a desert, a savannah, a rainforest, a marsh, an area of intensive agriculture and a human habitat.

The project is designed to last for 100 years, providing valuable data for research and education to help scientists better understand how our world works. On September 26, 1991, eight researchers, known as "biospherians," sealed the airlock on this massive enclosed ecological system - and Biosphere 2 was born. Following their 24-month adventure, these men and women will emerge from their mini-world on September 26, 1993. The experiment will continue with a new team of biospherians after a several month transition period.

The project is designed for three purposes: research, education, and the development of environmental technologies for use on Earth and in outer space. Biosphere 2 is a new type of laboratory which combines state-of-the-art architecture and mechanical and computer monitoring systems with a wide range of living ecosystems. It is an experimental project where everything that happens—both expected and unexpected—provides valuable insights into our complex and evolving world. While the biospherians further the research of more than 60 projects, 42 Ph.D.-level scientists are formally analyzing the information gathered inside Biosphere 2, as they study such topics as carbon dioxide and oxygen cycles, soil composition, coral reef health and vitality, agricultural pest management, waste and water recycling, and more. Every two weeks, the biospherians send the samples they have collected through the airlock to scientific consultants and analytic laboratories for study.


History

December 1991—Leak tests on the Biosphere 2 structure from September 26 through the first week of December were completed. Results of the seal tests showed an annual leak-rate of under 10%, setting a world record, making Biosphere 2 three hundred times more tightly sealed than NASA's closed ecological experimental facilities, and thirty times the tightness of the space shuttle. The sealed facade of a well-designed glazed skyscraper would normally leak air several thousand times more rapidly than a comparable area of Biosphere 2’s glazing.

Fall 1991 - Winter 1992—An exceptionally forceful El Nino current cast Arizona into one of its cloudiest seasons on record. Inside Biosphere 2 carbon dioxide levels rose to about 3400 ppm coinciding with an unusually dark cloudy period in the last week of December when photosynthesis was greatly reduced.

February 20, 1992—The Biosphere 2 crew announced the birth of a new baby galago in the rainforest. The baby galago, believed to be about three weeks old, marked the first primate birth in Biosphere 2. The gestation period of the galagos (130 days) suggests that the newborn was conceived in Biosphere 2.

March 1992—Dr. Phil Dustin, College of Charleston, a well known authority on the health and vitality of coral reefs, commenced a study in Mexico, where the coral collections were made, and with Biosphere 2 corals to ascertain the specific differences between the two reef ecologies.

March 22, 1992—The crew of Biosphere 2 spoke to the crew at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station via a ham radio phone-patch. The phone-patch was a unique linkage between crews isolated in different ways—one in a separate tropical biosphere—the other in a polar extreme environment. Both teams enjoyed the experience of being "alone together."

March 27, 1992—Six months into its two-year closure, the Biosphere 2 crew surpassed its first major milestone and set several world records—living inside closed ecological life support system longer than any predecessor. One member of the Russian crew of the BIOS-3 facility in Siberia lived six months inside, however BIOS-3 did not recycle waste, and supplied less than 50% of the food.

April 24-April 27, 1992—Space Biospheres Ventures hosted the Third International Workshop on Closed Ecological Systems. Presentations and workshops were given by more than 30 different participants representing universities, research institutions, and government agencies from Russia, Europe, Japan and the United States. The symposium explored the dynamics and modeling of carbon dynamics in natural and engineered ecosystems underlining the potential importance of carbon research in Biosphere 2 in our understanding of issues involved in global warming.

May 21, 1992—Biosphere Design Corporation, Biosphere 2's architects, received the top Special Award in the Pacific Rim 1992 Gold Nugget Awards contest for the best architectural design in the Commercial/Industrial Public or Private Special Use Facility category. Regarding the Biosphere 2 project the judges said: "This project is a leading edge experiment which may give direction on how to cope with future environmental issues that will have an increasing impact on the home-building industry in the coming decades."

May 29, 1992—Biosphere 2's tightly closed system exposed an unpredicted decline of about 0.3% of oxygen/month.This decline would have gone unnoticed at a leak rate of 100% a year. This measurement triggered productive new research into the linkage of major biogeochemical cycles within Biosphere 2 by both Bill Dempster and W.S. Broecker, the geochemist.

July 21, 1992—The Biosphere 2 Scientific Advisory Committee issued its "Report to the Chairman of Space Biospheres Ventures." Committee chairman, Dr. Thomas Lovejoy reported, "The committee is in agreement that the conception and construction of Biosphere 2 were acts of vision and courage. The scale of Biosphere 2 is unique and Biosphere 2 is already providing unexpected scientific results not possible through other means (notably the documented, unexpected decline in atmospheric oxygen levels.) Biosphere 2 will make important scientific contributions in the fields of biogeochemical cycling, the ecology of closed ecological systems, and restoration ecology."

September 26, 1992—The crew of Biosphere 2 celebrated their first year inside while over 6000 well-wishers celebrated with them outside. Educational activities for children were the focus of the event. Over 30 environmental organizations set-up educational booths and added to the festive moods. The health of the crew continued to be excellent. Their health indices, including blood cholesterol, blood pressure, and other measurements were better than before entry into Biosphere 2, due in large part to their low-calorie, low-fat, nutrient-dense diet, according to the crew’s physician, Dr. Roy Walford. "Nutrient-dense" means a large amount of essential nutrients—vitamins, minerals, etc.—per each calorie of food intake as opposed to, for example, table sugar which has lots of calories and no essential nutrients. The crew members lost an average of 16% of their pre-entry body weight before stabilizing.

October 17, 1992—Three new agriculture consultants attended a work session at SBV. They were: Dr. Jim Litsinger; Dr. Richard Harwood, Mott Chair of Sustainable Agriculture, Crop & Soil Sciences Dept., Michigan State University; and Dr. Will Getz, Winrock International.

October 30, 1992—The four registered voters (out of five Americans) of the Biosphere 2 crew cast ballots for the presidential election, including national, state, and local issues through absentee ballot.

December 1, 1992—The National Academy of Sciences published in its proceedings a paper by Dr. Roy Walford which discussed Biosphere 2 and implications for reducing physiological risk factors in closed life systems with nutrient rich diets.

December 15, 1992 — A new research program commenced in Biosphere 2 representing collaboration between Dr. Roy L. Walford and Dr. Gary K. Beauchamp and Dr. Charles J. Wysocki of Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, the world’s leading multidisciplinary center for research on olfactory sense perception. Biosphere 2 afforded a unique opportunity to study, for the first time, possible changes in human olfaction in a long-term closed system. Two aromas were imported for the odor-threshold testing.

Winter 1992—The Journal, Restoration & Management Notes, published paper by team from Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies who collaborated with Biosphere 2 researchers to study the carbon distribution and dynamics within the system and the development of soil over time. The article discusses the importance of Biosphere 2 in generating basic ecosystem understanding relevant to our ability to restore human damaged environments.

January 13, 1993—Oxygen was added to Biosphere 2 to bring its atmosphere level back to 19%. The oxygen was allowed to drop slowly to 14.5%, about equal to the oxygen in air found at an altitude of around 13,400 feet in order to study human ’s ability to acclimate to falling levels of oxygen. This careful Biosphere 2 experiment showed that the Biospherians operated well between the range of 16%- 19%. This discovery has major implications in undersea and planetary explorations. Dr. Wally Broecker of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, the primary outside scientist working on the oxygen dynamics of Biosphere 2, said. "As long as the exact amount of oxygen added and its isotopic composition are precisely measured, it seems to me that this action will not put into jeopardy any of the scientific goals of this endeavor."

February 1, 1993— The development of a sustainable, highly productive (eight humans fed from one half acre or 0.2 hectare), and non-polluting agriculture system was already clearly one of the top achievements of Biosphere 2. It's chemical-free system recycles all human and domestic animal waste products and utilizes dozens of crop varieties to provide nutritional balance and allow for crop rotation. The crew had produced approximately 80% of their food. The other 20% was drawn from a three month supply of food that was grown inside the facility before the experiment began and from seed reserve. Improvements to be made to the system during transition will allow 100% to be produced.

April 1, 1993 — The Journal of the American Institutes of Biological Sciences, Bioscience, published a paper on initial results from the Biosphere 2 closure experiment and the project’s potential for providing a new type of laboratory for understanding fundamental processes of ecosystems and Earth’s biosphere.

April 1June 1, 1994 - After successfully completing Mission One, upgrading Biosphere 2, and starting Mission Two with increased agricultural productivity, Mr. Bass decided to change the focus of the facility from a total system approach to a reductionist approach in ecology. The ensuing clash in the policies of the two partners led to a negotiation process resulting in a mutually agreed settlement and effectively dissolving the joint venture. Decisions Team would continue its work in biospherics elsewhere and control of Biosphere 2 was turned over to Mr. Bass. Decisions Team negotiated in these two months a deal with Mr. Edward Bass's Decisions Investment that ended the SBV joint venture

April 1, 1994December 31, 1995 - Edward Bass operated Biosphere 2 through his appointed President, Steve Bannon and Scientific Committee, led by Wallace Broecker and Michael Crow of Columbia University. This new reductionist oriented management team soon had a crisis with Mission Two and had to call off the experiment months before schedule on September 6, 1994. It is important to realize that no further total system science has emerged from Biosphere 2 since that date, and that the closed system was opened to air exchange ("the flow through mode"), and the world record setting agricultural system was destroyed.

January 1, 1996, With the shutdown following from DI's new policy, Mr Bass turned the project over to Columbia University for five years to operate as a world class educational center with reductionist ecosystems studies with emphasis on CO2 levels.

1996 - Bio-Dome, a movie parodying the project and starring Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin, is released.

September 2003 - Columbia University, after being given a new ten year lease, 2000 - 2010, to continue with Biosphere 2, decided to withdraw from its agreement with Mr. Bass by the end of 2003.


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