Ecosystems in Isolation
Hidden in the desert hills 30 miles north of Tucson, an other-worldly structure gleams in the sun. This is Biosphere 2, conceived as a sealed facility for exploring human-habitable ecological systems on a grand scale. A rainforest, savanna, ocean, marsh, and desert live under 6,500 glass panes. The first mission, started in 1991, locked 4 men and 4 women inside the 3.14-acre building for two years, but challenges arose with the oxygen levels, crop yields, animal populations, and corporate management.
Today, the facility is managed by the University of Arizona. While much of the data from the original mission is lost, current scientific experiments investigate soil development and rainforest carbon cycles.