Biosphere 2 (126) - (from Tucson)

We arrived at Biosphere 2 at 3pm and joined a tour of the facility at 3.15pm. To our delight we discovered we were the only people to be shown about at that time and it felt like it was a private tour. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable and had been working at structure almost since it opened.

Biosphere 2 is a 3.15-acre (12,700 m2) structure built in Oracle, about 45 minutes north of Tucson, originally designed to be an artificial, closed ecological system. Constructed between 1987 and 1991, it was used to explore the complex web of interactions within life systems in a structure that included five areas based on natural biomes; an agricultural area and human living/working space to study the interactions between humans, farming and technology with the rest of nature.

It also explored the possible use of closed biospheres in space colonisation, and allowed the study and manipulation of a biosphere without harming Earth's. The name comes from Earth’s biosphere, appropriately named by the group as Biosphere 1 - Earth's life system is the only biosphere currently known. Funding for the project came primarily from the joint venture’s financial partner, Decisions Investment and cost $200 million from 1985 to 2007, including land, support research greenhouses, test module and staff facilities.

With a size comparable to two and a half football fields, it remains the largest closed system ever created. The glass facility is elevated nearly 4,000 feet above sea level at the base of the Santa Catalina Mountains. The sealed nature of the structure allowed scientists to monitor the continually changing chemistry of the air, water and soil contained within. Health of the human crew was monitored by a medical doctor inside and an outside medical team.

Biosphere 2 contained representative biomes: a 1,900 square metre rainforest, an 850 square metre ocean with a coral reef, a 450 square metre mangrove wetland, a 1,300 square metre savannah grassland, a 1,400 square metre fog desert, a 2,500 square metre agricultural system, a human habitat and a below-ground level technical infrastructure. Heating and cooling water circulated through independent piping systems and passive solar input through the glass space frame panels covering most of the facility, and electrical power was supplied into Biosphere 2 from an onsite natural gas energy centre through airtight penetrations.

In 1995, Columbia University took over management of the facility for research and as a campus until 2003. In 1996, they changed the virtually airtight, materially-closed structure designed for closed system research, to a “flow-through” system, and halted closed system research. They manipulated carbon dioxide levels for global warming research, and injected desired amounts of carbon dioxide, venting as needed.

By 2006, the property was to be redeveloped for a planned housing community and in June, 2007, the property including surrounding land, totalling 1,650 acres (6.7 km2) had been sold to a residential home developer for US$50 million. A development including homes and a resort hotel was planned for a portion of the land. The Biosphere itself remained open for tours but maintenance was scaled down to a point where it was almost non-existent.

Later in June, a lease of life was given to Biosphere 2 when the University of Arizona announced it would take over research. The announcement ended immediate fears that the famous glass vivarium would be demolished. University officials said private gifts and grants enabled them to cover research and operating costs for three years with the possibility of extending that funding for 10 years. It has in fact been extended for ten years, and is engaged in multi-year research projects including research into the water use of various Arizona grass species.

First mission
The first closed mission lasted from September 26, 1991 to September 26, 1993. The crew were: medical doctor and researcher Roy Walford, Jane Poynter, Taber MacCallum, Mark Nelson, Sally Silverstone, Abigail Alling (a late replacement for Silke Schneider), Mark Van Thillo and Linda Leigh.

The agricultural system produced 83% of the total diet, which included a wide variety of crops including bananas, papayas, sweet potatoes, beets, peanuts, lablab and cowpea beans, rice, and wheat. No toxic chemicals could be used, since they would quickly impact health. During the first year the eight inhabitants experienced hunger as they adapted. During the second year, the crew produced over a ton more food, average caloric intake increased, and they regained some weight lost during the first year.

 They consumed the same low-calorie, nutrient-dense diet which Roy Walford had extensively studied in his research on extending lifespan through diet. Medical markers indicated the health of the crew during the two years was excellent. Strikingly, they showed the same improvement in health indices such as lowering of blood cholesterol, blood pressure, enhancement of immune system. They lost an average of 16% of their pre-entry body weight before stabilizing and regaining some weight during their second year.

Subsequent studies showed that the biospherians’ metabolism became more efficient at extracting nutrients from their food as an adaptation to the low-calorie, high nutrient diet.

Biosphere 2 suffered from CO2 levels that "fluctuated wildly" and most of the vertebrate species and all of the pollinating insects died. Insect pests, like cockroaches, boomed. In practice, ants, a companion to one of the tree species in the Rain Forest, had been introduced. By 1993 the tramp ant species, local to the area had been unintentionally sealed in and had come to dominate. A number of pollinating insects were lost to ant predation and several bird species were lost, however, many of the pollinating duties were performed by those ants and cockroaches.

Oxygen

During the first mission, the oxygen inside the facility, which began at 20.9%, fell at a steady pace and after 16 months was down to 14.5%. This is equivalent to the oxygen availability at an elevation of 13,400 ft (4,080 metres). Since some biospherians were starting to have symptoms like sleep apnoea and fatigue, Walford and the medical team decided to boost oxygen with injections in January and August 1993, a very controversial point at the time due to externally altering the enclosed atmospheric conditions, causing some to question the entire project’s scientific value.

Psychology and conflict

Much of the evidence for isolated human groups comes from psychological studies of scientists overwintering in Antarctic research stations. The study of this phenomenon is "confined environment psychology", and according to Jane Poynter, not nearly enough of it was brought to bear on Biosphere 2.

Before the first closure mission was half over, the group had split into two factions and people who had been intimate friends had become implacable enemies, barely on speaking terms.

The faction inside the bubble came from a rift between the joint venture partners on how the science should proceed, as biospherics or as specialist ecosystem studies. Was the Biosphere a scientific experiment or a business venture, or perhaps just an enormous art installation? The faction that included Poynter felt strongly that they should be making formal proposals for research for the Science Advisory Committee to evaluate. The other faction included Abigail Alling, the titular director of research inside the bubble, and who sided with John Allen in blocking that move. On February 14, the entire SAC resigned.


The "Lungs" of the Biosphere. This
huge neoprene diaphragm contracts
and expands with the building's internal
temperature. Note the centre stainless
structure with legs - that entire disk will
lower to the ground as the building
warms up & contract (as shown) when
cool.

 Time Magazine wrote: “Now, the veneer of credibility, already bruised by allegations of tamper-prone data, secret food caches and smuggled supplies, has cracked ... the two-year experiment in self-sufficiency is starting to look less like science and more like a $150 million stunt.”

Undoubtedly the lack of oxygen and the calorie restricted nutrient dense diet contributed to low morale. The Alling faction feared that the Poynter group were prepared to go so far as to import food, if it meant making them fitter to carry out research projects. They considered that would be a project failure by definition.

The external management could certainly have done more to defuse the intolerable situation inside. Instead they provoked the Poynter faction further by putting Sally Silverstone in charge of day-to-day agricultural operations, replacing Poynter.

In November the hungry Biospherians began eating emergency food supplies that had not been grown inside the bubble. Poynter made Chris Helms, PR Director for the enterprise, aware of this. She was promptly dismissed by Margret Augustine, CEO of Space Biospheres Ventures, and told to come out of the biosphere. This order was, however, never carried out.

Second mission
During the transition period between missions, extensive research and system improvements had been undertaken. Concrete was sealed to prevent uptake of carbon dioxide. The second mission began on March 6, 1994, with an announced run of ten months. Crew was Norberto Romo (Capt.), John Druitt, Matt Finn, Pascale Maslin, Charlotte Godfrey, Rodrigo Romo and Tilak Mahato. The second crew achieved complete sufficiency in food production.

On April 1, 1994 a severe dispute within the management team led to the ousting of the on-site management by federal marshals serving a restraining order, leaving management of the mission to Ed Bass' company Decisions Investment.

At 3 am on April 5, 1994, Abigail Alling and Mark Van Thillo, members of the first crew, deliberately vandalized the project from outside, opening a door and violating the closure.

Soon after that, the captain Norberto Romo (by then married to Margret Augustine) left the Biosphere. He was replaced by Bernd Zabel, who had been nominated as captain of the first mission but replaced at the last minute. Two months later, Matt Smith replaced Matt Finn.

The ownership and management company Space Biospheres Ventures was officially dissolved on June 1, 1994, leaving scientific and business management of the mission to the financial partner, Decisions Investment. Mission 2 was ended prematurely on September 6, 1994.

I’ve probably gone into far too much detail but I found the history of this unique place very interesting, particularly the interaction between people in an enclosed environment. We headed off home as dusk was settling, happy to have bedded another new adventure.