Climate change is a growing concern and has an impact on everyone on the planet. Many college students are pursuing their degrees to help lead the world towards a more sustainable future. However, for those who want to reverse the effects, where can they conduct the necessary research to uncover the best methods to save our planet? Joost van Haren, an assistant research professor at the University of Arizona and Biosphere 2, is an advocate for spreading awareness of climate research using modular biospheres. Since 1995 van Haren has been researching biogeochemical cycles in tropical rainforests in association with greenhouse gases from deforestation and climate change at Biosphere 2. In an interview, Joost shares his insight on what makes modular biospheres a valuable place to research, what the potential of research in modular biospheres could be and the best ways to involve University of Arizona students with controlled climate research without having to travel all the way out to Biosphere 2.
The University of Arizona is fortunate to offer research facilities unlike any others in the world such as Biosphere 2 and the Controlled Environment Agriculture Center. However, there is travel involved for both these facilities. What the UA is lacking is on-campus exposure to unique controlled environment systems. The work done at Biosphere 2 sets a great precedent for what kind of research modular biospheres are capable of. During this interview, van Haren emphasized the capabilities of Biosphere 2 that allow for greater control when experimenting with temperature and precipitation variation in the rainforest ecosystem. He stated “in the real world you never can predict when and how much it is going to rain somewhere, nor can you add dyes or labels to that rain and then trace that through the ecosystem. That’s one thing you can do at Biosphere beautifully.” In modular systems, experiments can be performed that would not be possible in the real world and the interactions are magnified.
In the world we live in today, we continually witness the degradation of the environment due to human activity. How are we to know what impact our actions will actually have on our planet’s ecosystems? It is very easy to control and measure interactions in a modular biosphere without having to wait to see results in the real world. Besides direct ecosystem research, there are numerous other kinds of research that could benefit from the use of a modular biosphere. van Haren points out that with the use of biotechnology, organisms can be engineered to be more resilient to the changing climate such as upcoming research in the Biosphere 2 ocean with genetically modified coral. He states “we know that we have to be careful with [genetically modified organisms] because with cross breeding it can potentially take out natural strains. That’s why we do it at places like Biosphere 2 to first test it out.”
In a discussion about spreading awareness of climate related research in modular biosphere systems, van Haren brings up some excellent points and ideas. Few students actually see or go to Biosphere 2, so “one of the things which also could help in setting up a design project, would be bringing one of the test modules from Biosphere 2 over and putting it across from Flandrau center on the mall.” This project would provide something tangible from Biosphere 2 right in the middle of the UA campus that could be incorporated in education and visitors experience at the Flandrau science center and used by students to do experiments with controlling environments.
Research facilities like Biosphere 2 provide incredible insight into our connection to Biosphere 1, the planet Earth. These systems have great potential for helping college students enter the world with the tools to heal it. “Once you design and work through these kinds of issues you actually realize … what a treasure our planet really is. … That kind of realization is super important for students” (van Haren).
Lia Crocker is the Project Manager for the Biosystems Engineering Club
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