ORACLE, Ariz. — Decades ago, the thought of a group of humans locked in a life-cycle experiment was pure science fiction — until a group of visionaries realized this on a pristine 40-acre slice of the Sonoran Desert north of Tucson.
For all of its initial warts, Biosphere 2 has shown that we can indeed create a viable closed-loop system that can sustain and support human life. Was the result perfect? Well, not completely. But the experiment itself was a great success.
“What made the headlines at the time was that this was a futuristic colony that we could put on the moon or on Mars,” said John Adams, deputy director of Biosphere 2. .
The ultimate construction of such a complex structure on another piece of rock somewhere in the solar system remains for generations, he said.
Yet Biosphere 2 has remained a valuable research entity since the first eight inhabitants left its surroundings in the early 1990s.
In fact, the work being done here is vital as climate change forces people to re-examine the way we all live.
This work, however, does not happen in a vacuum. Biosphere 2 is now an attraction open to the public.
In 2019, some 110,000 visitors trekked through the saguaro forest along the Catalina Highway to see the geodesic dome on steroids. And the trend was up before the pandemic hit, Adams said.
“I think there’s something here for everyone,” he said. “There’s something for those interested in science or botany, and engineering systems are fascinating.
Indeed, history buffs will enjoy seeing the living quarters of its original inhabitants. Naturists will revel in the rainforest and desert landscape, and the man-made ocean is a brackish wonder that may well help scientists one day figure out how to help the world’s dwindling coral reefs.
“On top of that, it’s an amazing teaching tool,” Adams said. “It’s a local attraction and people are drawn to it because of what happened initially in history. But people are pleasantly surprised to hear about research that benefits everyone. Our foundation is in research and everything is based on that.
The structure itself, built from 60,000 massive metal struts, remained the same, but the interior underwent a transformation. What was originally farmland used to grow crops to support the original inhabitants has been transformed into three glorified petri dishes nearly 100 feet long, 36 feet wide with an average slope of 10 degrees. Each is filled to a uniform depth of three feet with approximately 500 metric tons of crushed basalt rock.
This gives scientists the opportunity to examine the evolution of landscapes from basic mineral to living landscapes and ultimately to vascular plant communities. Some 1,800 sensors and sampling devices on, within or above each landscape monitor water, carbon and energy cycle processes and changing landscapes.
This will help scientists better predict the effects of climate change and provide possible scenarios under various conditions, Adams said.
The rainforest, with enough moisture for every pore to secrete sweat, is a biological marvel with the harmony in which the many complex organisms have adapted to life in the bubble. But with drought conditions worsening around the world, a recent study of a simulated drought in which water was held for more than two months is coming under intense scrutiny by the scientific community.
In this way, the spatial scale of Biosphere 2 is a bridge between small-scale, controlled, laboratory-based understandings of Earth processes and field experiments where control of all environmental conditions is essentially impossible. This size enables controlled experimentation on an unprecedented scale to provide the missing link between the lab and the real world.
And unlike most scientific research conducted away from the prying eyes of the public, visitors are encouraged to see this work as it unfolds before us.
