Some Ecological and Human Lessons of Biosphere 2
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.2478/eje-2018-0006Keywords:
biosphere 2, technosphere, biosphere, human-biosphere paradigm, self-organization, mini biosphere, biomes, biospherians, reductionist/holistic, scientific taboosAbstract
The Biosphere 2 project, a 1.2 hectare materially-closed mini-biosphere that supported teams of biospherian crews from 1991–1994 provides a host of ecological and human-biosphere lessons relevant to our global biospheric challenges. Because of its high visibility through worldwide media coverage, the project advanced public understanding of what a biosphere is and the roles that humans can constructively play in keeping ecosystems and atmosphere healthy. The present paper reviews the fairly recent scientific understanding of our global biosphere and some of the intriguing results from Biosphere 2. It also examines some of the reasons that Biosphere 2 aroused controversy because of narrow definitions and expectations of how science is to be conducted. The cooperation between engineers and ecologists and the requirement to design a technosphere for Biosphere 2 that supported the life inside without harming it has enormous relevance to what is required in our global home. There was an unexpected and profound connection that the ‘biospherian’ crew inside Biosphere 2 felt to their living biosphere. Biosphere 2 also demonstrated new kinds of roles that can be played by people aware of a biosphere as their life support system.
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Ecological Microcosms. NY: Springer-Verlag.
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Engineers 23rd International Conference on Environmental Systems,
Colorado Springs, CO.
Finn, M. (1996) Comparison of mangrove forest structure and function
in a mesocosm and Florida. PhD Dissertation, Georgetown University,
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in Space Research, 14 (11), 417-426.
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results from Biosphere 2. BioScience, 43(4), 225-236.
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Testbed for intensive, sustainable, non-polluting farming
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Nelson, M. & Bohn, H. (2011) Soil-based biofiltration for air purification:
potentials for environmental and space life support application.
Journal of Environmental Protection, doi 10.4236/
jep.2011, published online.
Nelson, M., & Wolverton, B.C. (2011) Plants + Soil/Wetland Microbes
and Food Crop Systems that also Clean Air and Water. Advances
in Space Research, 47, 582–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.
asr.2010.10.007
Odum, H.T. (1996) Scales of ecological engineering. Ecological Engineering
6, 7- 19.
Reider, R. (2009) Dreaming the Biosphere: The Theatre of All Possibilities.
Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Schlesinger, W.H., (1991) Biogeochemistry: An Analysis of Global
Change. NY: Academic Press.
Schwägerl, C. (2014) The Anthropocene: The Human Era and How It
Shapes Our Planet. Santa Fe, NM: Synergetic Press.
Severinghaus, J.P., Broecker, W.S., Dempster, W.F. et al. (1994) Oxygen
loss in Biosphere 2. Eos, Transactions American Geophysical
Union, 75, 33-37.
Silverstone, S.E. & Nelson, M. (1996) Food production and nutrition in
Biosphere 2: results from the first mission, September 1991 to
September 1993. Advances in Space Research, 18 (4/4), 49-61.
Tubiello, F.N., Druitt, J.W. & Marino, B.D.V. (1999) Dynamics of the
Global Water Cycle of Biosphere 2. Ecological Engineering, 13,
287-300.
Trubetskova, I. (2004) Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky and his Revolutionary
Theory of the Biosphere and the Noosphere, http://
www-sg.sr.unh.edu/preceptorial/Summaries_2004/Vernadsky_
Pap_ITru.html (accessed 5 July 2018)
Vernadsky, V.I. (1998) (English translation). The Biosphere, (M.A.S. Mc-
Menamin ed.). Springer-Verlag, NY.
Walford, R.L., Bechtel, R., MacCallum, T. et al. (1996) “Biospheric medicine”
as viewed from the two-year first closure of Biosphere 2.
Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine, 67(7), 609-617.
2. Tucson, AZ: Biosphere Press. Published also in Dutch
(1993) and Japanese (Kdansha Press, 1997).
Alling, A., Nelson, M., Leigh, L., MacCallum, T. et al. (1993) Experiments
on the closed ecological system in the Biosphere 2 Test Module.
Appendix chapter, pp 463-469 in R.J. Beyers and H.T. Odum, eds.
Ecological Microcosms. NY: Springer-Verlag.
Bolin, B. and Cooke, R.B. (eds.) (1983) The major biogeochemical cycles
and their interactions in SCOPE 21. NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Allen, J., (1991) Biosphere 2: The Human Experiment. NY: Penguin
Books.
Allen, J.P., Nelson, M., and Snyder, T.P., (1984) Institute of Ecotechnics.
The Environmentalist 4, 205-218.
Commoner, B. (1990) Making Peace with the Planet. NY: Pantheon
Books.
Davies, J. (2016) The Birth of the Anthropocene. Berkeley, CA: University
of California Press.
Dempster, W.F. (2008) Tightly closed ecological systems reveal atmospheric
subtleties – experience from Biosphere 2. Advances in
Space Research 42, 1951–1956.
Dempster, W.F. (1994) Water Systems of Biosphere 2, presented at the
International Conference on Life Support and Biospherics at the
University of Alabama, Huntsville, 1992. Published Oracle, AZ:
Space Biospheres Ventures.
Dempster, W.F. (1993) Biosphere 2: System Dynamics and Observations
During the Initial Two-Year Closure Trial. Society of Automotive
Engineers Technical Paper No. 932290, Society of Automotive
Engineers 23rd International Conference on Environmental Systems,
Colorado Springs, CO.
Finn, M. (1996) Comparison of mangrove forest structure and function
in a mesocosm and Florida. PhD Dissertation, Georgetown University,
Washington D.C.,.
Langdon, C., Takahashi, T., Sweeney, C. et al. (2000) Effect of calcium
carbonate saturation state on the calcification rate of an experimental
coral reef. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 14(2), 639–654.
Langdon, C., Broecker, W.S., Hammond, D.E. et al. (2003) Effect of
elevated CO2 on the community metabolism of an experimental
coral reef. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 17(1), 1011,
doi:1010.1029/2002GB001941.
Leigh, L. (1999) The Basis for Rainforest Diversity in Biosphere 2. Ph.D.
Dissertation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL:.
Lovelock, J. (1979) Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth. Oxford, UK: Oxford
University Press.
Marino, B. D., & Odum, H. T. (1999) Biosphere 2. Introduction and research
progress. Ecological Engineering, 13(1-4), 3-14.
Morowitz, H., Allen, J.P., Nelson, M. et al. (2005) Closure as a Scientific
Concept and its Application to Ecosystem Ecology and the Science
of the Biosphere. Advances in Space Research 36(7), 1305-
1311.
Nelson, M. (2018) Pushing our Limits: Insights from Biosphere 2. Tucson,
AZ: University of Arizona Press.
Nelson, M., Gray, K. & Allen, J.P. (2015) Group dynamics challenges:
Insights from Biosphere 2. Life Sciences in Space Research, 6,
79-86. http:dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lssr.2015.07.003
Nelson, M., Dempster, W.F. & Allen, J.P. (2013) Key Ecological Challenges
for Closed Systems Facilities. Advances in Space Research, 52(1),
86-96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2013.03.019
Nelson, M., Dempster, W.F. & Allen, J.P., (2009) The Water Cycle in
Closed Ecological Systems: Perspectives from the Biosphere 2
and Laboratory Biosphere Systems. Advances in Space Research,
44(12), 1404-1412.
Nelson, M., Allen, J.P., Alling, A., Dempster, W.F. & Silverstone, S. (2003)
Earth applications of closed ecological systems: relevance to the
development of sustainability in our global biosphere. Advances
in Space Research, 31(7), 1649-1656.
Nelson, M & Dempster, W.F. (1996) Living In Space: results from Biosphere
2’s initial closure, an early testbed for closed ecological
systems on Mars, pp. 363-390 in Strategies for Mars: a guide to
human exploration, ed. Stoker, C. & Emment, C.,. San Diego, CA:
AAS Publication Vol. 86.
Nelson, M, Dempster, W.F., Alvarez-Romo, N., et al. (1994) Atmospheric
Dynamics and bioregenerative technologies in a soil-based ecological
life support system: Initial results from Biosphere 2. Advances
in Space Research, 14 (11), 417-426.
Nelson, M., Burgess, T., Alling, A., Alvarez-Romo, N. et al (1993a) Using
a closed ecological system to study Earth’s biosphere: Initial
results from Biosphere 2. BioScience, 43(4), 225-236.
Nelson, M., Silverstone, S. & Poynter, J. (1993b) Biosphere 2 Agriculture:
Testbed for intensive, sustainable, non-polluting farming
systems. Outlook on Agriculture, 13(3), 167-174.
Nelson, M. & Bohn, H. (2011) Soil-based biofiltration for air purification:
potentials for environmental and space life support application.
Journal of Environmental Protection, doi 10.4236/
jep.2011, published online.
Nelson, M., & Wolverton, B.C. (2011) Plants + Soil/Wetland Microbes
and Food Crop Systems that also Clean Air and Water. Advances
in Space Research, 47, 582–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.
asr.2010.10.007
Odum, H.T. (1996) Scales of ecological engineering. Ecological Engineering
6, 7- 19.
Reider, R. (2009) Dreaming the Biosphere: The Theatre of All Possibilities.
Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Schlesinger, W.H., (1991) Biogeochemistry: An Analysis of Global
Change. NY: Academic Press.
Schwägerl, C. (2014) The Anthropocene: The Human Era and How It
Shapes Our Planet. Santa Fe, NM: Synergetic Press.
Severinghaus, J.P., Broecker, W.S., Dempster, W.F. et al. (1994) Oxygen
loss in Biosphere 2. Eos, Transactions American Geophysical
Union, 75, 33-37.
Silverstone, S.E. & Nelson, M. (1996) Food production and nutrition in
Biosphere 2: results from the first mission, September 1991 to
September 1993. Advances in Space Research, 18 (4/4), 49-61.
Tubiello, F.N., Druitt, J.W. & Marino, B.D.V. (1999) Dynamics of the
Global Water Cycle of Biosphere 2. Ecological Engineering, 13,
287-300.
Trubetskova, I. (2004) Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky and his Revolutionary
Theory of the Biosphere and the Noosphere, http://
www-sg.sr.unh.edu/preceptorial/Summaries_2004/Vernadsky_
Pap_ITru.html (accessed 5 July 2018)
Vernadsky, V.I. (1998) (English translation). The Biosphere, (M.A.S. Mc-
Menamin ed.). Springer-Verlag, NY.
Walford, R.L., Bechtel, R., MacCallum, T. et al. (1996) “Biospheric medicine”
as viewed from the two-year first closure of Biosphere 2.
Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine, 67(7), 609-617.
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How to Cite
Nelson, M. (2018). Some Ecological and Human Lessons of Biosphere 2. European Journal of Ecology, 4(1), 50-55. https://doi.org/10.2478/eje-2018-0006
