Hello and welcome to Biospheres for Research, a campaign seeking to increase awareness of the importance of biospheres in our world today and create more educational and research opportunities through the University of Arizona. This blog is run by myself, Lia Crocker, a University of Arizona student in my junior year of studying Biosystems Engineering.
First of all, you may want to know what a biosphere is. A biosphere is defined as a materially closed, but energetically open system. The Earth itself is a biosphere! (Often referred to as Biosphere 1.) Here on Earth, we can also construct modular biospheres. These systems contain ecosystems found on Earth, but are sealed off from the rest of the world. They have their own biology, soil and atmosphere. These systems are capable of greatly replicating Earth's ecosystems in a contained environment ideal for scientific research.
The next topic to address is what can you research in a modular biosphere? To explore this topic, I will offer some examples regarding Biosphere 2. Now owned and operated by the University of Arizona, Biosphere 2 is the largest closed system ever created. It contains 7 biomes under a 3.14 acre structure. One reason Biosphere 2 was built was to demonstrate the viability of life supporting closed ecological systems for habitation of other planets, an interesting concept still today! The original purpose of the facility was to sustain teams of 8 individuals for 2 years at a time. Although this mission was only fully completed one time there was much to be learned. When Columbia University gained ownership of B2 they used it to run experiments. The most remarkable experiment of the time was the research done on the coral reef. This research made a great contribution to our understanding of coral bleaching occuring in our oceans today. Now that the UofA owns the Biosphere, groundbreaking ocean research continues. Soon the super degraded state of the ocean, similar to how our oceans are projected to be in the future, will be undergoing bioremediation to see how this may occur in real systems in the future with climate change. The ocean system will then be used for testing biologically engineered coral species under the stress of the effects of climate change to see how they respond with the hope of finding a resilient form of coral to repopulate diminishing coral reefs.
This new movement in research at Biosphere 2 has opened up opportunities for students at the University. The Biosystems Engineering Club, of which I, myself, am Project Manager, will be collaborating with the ocean coordinators to research, design and build quarantine containers to house fish and invertebrates before they are introduced to the ocean system. The quarantine systems are necessary to remove any parasites that may have come with the arriving species before releasing them into the whole system.
Projects in Biospheres are interdisciplinary. There are opportunities for engineers as well as scientists. Ecological engineering is a fairly new and developing concept. In the past ecologists and engineers were seen as completely separate in their ways of thinking. However, as the pressure increases for research to be done on how we must adapt to a changing climate, ecology and engineering are closer than ever.
Subscribe to Biospheres for Research to continue an educational journey exploring biosphere research as the method for solving the world's greatest environmental problems! Leave your questions and ideas in the comment section. I would love to get your feedback!
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