We visit Biosphere 2

IT'S FOURSDAY and it's Yvonne's choice. Being a former school teacher, she just had to pick something educational. Today will be a science lesson.

We arrive at the Biosphere2 compound after a two hour drive from Mesa and the first question on everybody's mind is..... What was Biosphere 1? Well, it's the Planet Earth of course, says our tour guide.  I'm positive I saw this Dharma crest on his overalls.

Biosphere 2 was an attempt at a miniature re-creation of our planet. A self-sustained world in a test tube with an artificial rain forest, deserts, savannahs, farms and even a miniature ocean. A prototype for colonizing the Moon or Mars after it was feared by some very rich people that human beings were on a self destruction course. 

In 1991, 5 years after construction began and after 150 million dollars were spent, four men and four women along with 4000 species of plants and animals, including chickens, goats and pigs were sealed inside for a two year period during which time they had to grow their own food, recycle their own waste and water and maintain the facility to keep their fragile little ecosphere in balance. I'll tell you later how that turned out.

Sandi &Tito

Yvonne & Robert

The setting is the Sonoran Desert near Oracle Arizona with the Santa Catalina Mountains in the far background. When you see it for the first time, the Biosphere looks like something from a James Bond movie.  A gigantic glass structure resembling a Mayan pyramid surrounded by other huge and mysterious glass and metal domes.

Today, the four of us are going to figure this place out and at the end I will try to summarize everything in 100 words or less.

Biome is a cool word they use around here so I'll use it too, whenever I can.  The Biosphere's Rainforest biome is on the left, the living quarters are in the centre and that low dome-like structure on the right is something named the West Lung. There's another identical dome behind all of this and it's named the South Lung.

This is the main entrance into the Biosphere. It is an air-lock chamber and has sealable doors similar to those on a ship. From here on we are confined to the same spaces the 1991 Biospherians had access to.

This stairway leads to the sphere-shaped library perched above the living quarters. The eight inhabitants had access to the library during their stay.

Inside the Rainforest biome.

Our tour guide led us underground into a windy passageway connecting the Desert biome to the South Lung.

I had a Twilight Zone flashback while standing inside one of the giant mechanical lungs. 

During the closure experiments when researchers were sealed inside for long periods, Scientists needed a way to accommodate for the daily expansion and contraction of the air mass trapped within the Biosphere. The trapped air mass would expand during daytime heating and contract during night time cooling.  Calling them "lungs" is a bit confusing because it implies that their function is to somehow purify the air when in fact, all they do is allow for the trapped air mass to expand and contract freely without exerting pressure (positive and negative) on the external walls of the Biosphere structure. The round suspended disc in the centre would simply float up and down allowing air free movement in and out of the lung as if it was breathing.

Here is a better view of the rubber membrane of the lung in the expanded position. In the contracted position the legs rest on the floor.

The 750,000 gallon Ocean biome is over 25 feet deep and has a coral reef and salt water fish. 

This is the kitchen and eating area the Biospherians used during their closure experiment. The spiral staircase leads up to sleeping quarters.

Living quarters behind the kitchen with stairs leading up to bedrooms.

These buildings make up the Energy Center. It's where the Engineers, Maintenance and Facility Managers monitor the activities inside the Biosphere2.  Behind these buildings are two gas fired electrical generators. Initially the Biosphere2 Project generated it's own power. Today, they buy electricity but still remain capable to go off the grid if need be.

These three domes were originally used as "farms" where the inhabitants grew their own vegetables and crops. Today they are part of a Water & Life Experiment where soil-erosion experiments are conducted by the new owners, The University of Arizona.

Back then it was ants and cockroaches that outnumbered the captive people. Of course today, it's tourists that overrun the place.

The Biosphere experiment is often called a successful failure. Scientists involved with the project say that the venture was a success because of what was learned about sustainable living and I suppose that's true. That's what research is all about and sometimes success is hard to measure. The facility remains an exceptional laboratory for addressing critical questions relative to the future of Earth and it's environment.

Critics say it was a waste of money and too much went wrong with the experiment to call it a success.

So what did go wrong with Biosphere2? From the onset, the inhabitants noticed and experienced the effects of a gradual drop in oxygen levels. After 16 months, the oxygen level was down to 14.5% from the normal 20.9%.  Coincidently, they noticed a rise in carbon dioxide.  The inhabitants were becoming increasingly sick. Unforeseen by the designers was the role and effect that huge amounts of exposed concrete was having in the confined space. Excess carbon dioxide was reacting with the concrete to form calcium carbonate, thereby sequestering available carbon and oxygen. By the time the scientists had figured this out they had already introduced supplementary oxygen to keep the inhabitants and atmosphere from further deterioration.  By then 19 of the 25 introduced insect species including all the pollinator species had died off leaving only ants, cockroaches and katydids to overrun the place.  The ants, local to the area, had been inadvertently introduced and sealed in during construction and had grown to dominate over the other insects. There was conflict among the inhabitants which resulted in two groups being formed that wouldn't talk to each other. The management team often had conflicting views as well. And on top of all that, one night while everyone slept, the pigs got into the garden and destroyed it.

Today the Biosphere is a research facility owned and operated by the University of Arizona.  It also houses a conference centre including housing facilities and it caters to the tourist industry making it possible for people like us to visit and pass judgement.