Snakes (On a Plane!)

Not too long ago (roughly two or three weeks ago), we had the pleasure of working with the Tucson Herpetological Society in our Science Saturday event. Herpetology is the study of reptiles and amphibians.

I have to admit, when I first got word of working with the Herpetological Society, I got an email saying, "Re: Herp Club" (abbreviated). I was very close to being concerned, but I decided to read the email before judging. Lo and behold, my suspicions were alleviated, and we were going to be working with snakes that Saturday!

We were greeted by a lovely sign, both in the admissions center and down in the Biosphere:

From Herpetological Society

We went to the lower part of the human habitat and set up shop. It was really quite a fun time -- we had lots of people who came to see the snakes, with enough down time for the snakes not to get too excited. There's a lot of photos for this, so I shall post the link to the slideshow instead of making an incredibly long post:

http://picasaweb.google.com/USSVagrant/HerpetologicalSociety#slideshow/5270212566203010530

For individual images, go here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/USSVagrant/HerpetologicalSociety#

Outside the Biosphere

These photos are in no way a complete visual of the outside of Biosphere. There's also a huge chunk of buildings that are a corollary to the biosphere itself -- buildings for offices, for visitors and admission, for films, and for conventions. I'm focusing on the main building, and some of the closer buildings.

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

This is an external view of the library in the human habitat.

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

Some of the glass panes of the biosphere from a different angle.

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

A view of the glass from the south side of the biosphere -- the south side is also where the desert is inside the biosphere.

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

Outside the south lung. When you first see the lungs, their odd shape makes you wonder what it does. After taking the tour, though, you'll learn.

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

Those are some abandoned greenhouses. Before the biosphere and its numerous experiments were created, these greenhouses were made to see if some of the experiments they planned on doing were even possible. The experiments were successful, and so they moved it to the full-scale biosphere. These greenhouses now lie in disrepair, sadly, and it's my hope someday to explore through them.

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

This is on the southern ridge of the biosphere property. I cannot remember what the function of that building is, but I believe it's related to conventions.

And beyond the buildings, there's interesting wildlife near the biosphere as well. Particularly notable are all the insect varieties.

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

A rather large wasp.

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

A dragonfly. At the time I took this shot, it was cold enough outside that this dragonfly simply could not move -- he was stuck to the ground, allowing a very nice, clean shot.

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

Grasshoppers! Every year, there is a flourish of grasshoppers in the summer. When I took this image (early October), the large number of grasshoppers was slowly diminishing, but they were still quite numerous. They were of all different colors too -- some were green, some were yellow, some were black with orange wings.

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

A spider with a red abdomen.

From Biosphere 2

We also get to see the occasional deer on the lawn. I have yet to see coyotes or large predators though.

And for being so patient with me, I will reward you with two images of the road and weather patterns.

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

Biomes and Parts of the Biosphere Part 3

Ok, so when you take the tour, after the ocean, savannah, and wetlands areas, you come upon the desert, follow by the underbelly of the Biosphere. In my opinion, the underbelly of the Biosphere is the coolest part of the entire thing -- you see how the Biosphere functioned back in the original missions!

The Desert immediately follows the ocean and savannah. If you're a native to Tucson, this is perhaps the least interesting part -- we're so familiar with the desert that it looks almost like the wilder parts of Tucson do.

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

One thing to note though, is that the desert plays a critical role in the circulation of oxygen throughout the biosphere. During the colder months, the desert tends to put out more oxygen. Not to mention, the desert area is usually only watered a few times a year. When it is watered, a fog envelops the area. Also worth noting is the desert area has a very high glass ceiling.

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

After the quick stop in the desert, we go underground. Now this is where it gets interesting. You will immediately notice a sudden shift to a concrete bunker. And if you're lucky, the air vents will be blowing -- and you'll get a massive gust through your hair. Here is where all the technology lies, in the underbelly of the Biosphere. I need to apologize in advance -- because there are low lighting levels underground, some of my shots are slightly blurry. I tried to do my best without a tripod.

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

But please note, the underbelly of the Biosphere is not disconnected from the rest of the Biosphere. In fact, it's integrated almost seamlessly.

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

Water that runs off from the biomes above travels down through the underbelly, and eventually collects in the south lung. One has to travel through quite a bit of terrain to reach the south lung.

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

Once you get there, you are greeted by an impressive sight:

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

(Click on the magnifying glass to see a much larger panorama)

The south lung is where all the runoff water pools, because it is the lowest point in the entire biosphere. The South Lung's existence is due to the fact that the Biosphere was intended to be an enclosed system, except for electricity that was generated from an outside source.

The reason the South Lung exists, is that in an enclosed system, constant heating and cooling (thanks to the sun) would cause pressure inside the Biosphere to be constantly rising or falling. If the pressure were to reach a critical level, the glass panes forming the biosphere could shatter and explode outward. Inversely, if the pressure were to get too low, the glass could implode. So the lung was created -- as pressure from heat increases during the day, the aluminum disc suspended by a rubberlike substance rises. As the pressure decreases from cooling at night, the aluminum disc descends. In this way, the disc functions as a lung.

One funny thing to note: When you're leaving the lung, make sure to grab hold of your hat if you're wearing one.

Biomes and Parts of the Biosphere Part 2

Since a lot of the biosphere biomes run together, I'm going to cover both the Ocean and the Savannah in this portion.

First, the Savannah. All portions of the biosphere are separated from the habitat, but I believe that the Savannah and Ocean are the ones connected directly to the habitat via airlock portal.

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

Following this portal out will quickly lead you to the Ocean area, which is quite remarkable. But before I introduce the Ocean area, there is an experiment that recently finished worth mentioning.

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

This is the pinion pine experiment. Since pine trees around the world have been undergoing sharp declines in population, researchers have been trying to emulate why these trees have been dying off -- whether it is the environment, a disease, a parasite, or something else. Undergraduate students would take thousands of measurements over a period of several months on different pine plants in the different biomes around the biosphere. 6 were in each different biome, 3 dead, 3 alive. The research was conducted to see how atmosphere and moisture might be contributing to the deaths of pines. If you visit the biosphere sometime in the next month, these trees will probably still be there and the tour guide may mention them.

Now, onto the ocean. I include the mangrove wetlands in the ocean area because they're practically connected.

When you first enter the ocean area, you will be greeted with a massive and impressive feat of architecture, the giant glass windows and struts:

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

In the Biosphere, there are 7,200,000 cubic feet of sealed glass, 6,500 windows. It's impressive to say the least.

Also noteworthy is the big cliff immediately in front of you upon entering the ocean area.

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

The ocean also has a wavemaker -- if you listen closely while in the ocean biome, you'll hear a very deep and massive noise every 30 seconds or so. This is the artificial wave generator designed to imitate actual waves in a real ocean. The area itself is generally cool and humid, depending on the time of day you come into the biosphere. If you come in on a hot day, it might be warm and humid, so bring water.

Progressing further down, you encounter the mangrove swampland. If you were to actually get off of the walkway (which was built after the original missions for tour purposes), you'd find a very wet, marshy environment. However, most of what you see is the canopy of the mangroves.

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

Later in the tour, if you get lucky, you get to head near the beach of the ocean. I apologize for the image being blurry -- that is an artifact of google resizing the image. The slideshow mode should make it look better. Or click the little zoom button.

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

Finally, when you finish the tour, you can take a visit to the ocean viewing gallery, which is accessed from outside. You can see what the ocean looks like from underneath.

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

Recently efforts have been underway to clean up the ocean. For reasons unknown, there has been a massive flourish in algae, and a company has been hired to make it much cleaner. From what I understand, my fellow research assistants who have been around longer than me described a viewing gallery that was impossible to see through. Now it is much cleaner, but still there remains work to be done.

Also connected to the ocean and savannah area is the rainforest. Due to the humidity and limited walkspace in this area, my photos were limited. However, the rainforest is arguably the most beautiful artificial environment in the biosphere. When the misters (not men, the water spraying kind of misters) are going, it's really astounding.

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

Biomes and Parts of the Biosphere Part 1

Well, the biosphere is actually a pretty big place. I'm going to have to cover it in parts.

However, if you're visiting the biosphere, the first place in the actual biosphere that you'll visit, besides the visitor center and student village, will be the habitat. The habitat is where the original members of missions 1 and 2 at Biosphere 2 lived. Inside the habitat is a massive stone table, a retro-70's style kitchen, and a couple of rooms. Only one of the sleeping rooms is visible to tourists. The rest are roped off or blocked.

Beyond the sleeping rooms is the control room, a room for experiments (now used for storage), and the lower habitat. The lower section of the habitat consists of some rooms now used mostly for displays, and a greenhouse where food for the biospherians was grown, and where animals were kept.

The following image is taken in the experimentation room, now used for storage.

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

The following image used to be the greenhouse where animals were kept and food was grown. Having spoken with the researcher who will soon be working in this area, this greenhouse will soon be converted into a hill-slope experiment, which will entail looking at the effects of hills and slopes on plant growth, and water runoff.

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

Also worth noting the habitat is there is a tower that goes up -- it is now blocked to the public, but it used to be the library where the biospherians could read in their free time. The following image is looking up the stairwell.

From Biosphere 2 Biomes

First Impressions Part 2

So I left you hanging with my last part of "First Impressions." Ok, maybe you aren't too hung up about it. After all, it was fairly short. And indeed, you are correct. For you see, not only did I ARRIVE at the biosphere, I actually walked around it and went inside of it too! Quite an astounding task, if I say so myself. But let's not get caught up in the impressiveness of this feat.

So last we left off right outside the building itself.

From Biosphere 2

It really is quite a sight once you get close to it. There are 7.2 million cubic feet of sealed glass, with 6,500 windows. At it's highest point, the biosphere measures 91 feet tall. There are 500 tons of stainless steel separating the biosphere from the earth below as well! And that doesn't even cover the student village, administrative buildings, and other buildings.

Now, let me stop here for a moment. A couple people have asked me why it's called "Biosphere 2", with emphasis on the 2 portion. The reason it's called Biosphere 2 is because 'biosphere 1' would happen to be the Earth. Biosphere 2 is completely self-sustained, except for an outside power source. However, everything else can be completely sealed off from the outside world, thus earning the name Biosphere 2. The history of biosphere 2 will be for a later post.

On our way to the Biosphere, Ashley, our senior research assistant coworker, had to stop by the power station on the south side of the biosphere in order to pick up some keys. On the way back, we were greeted by some fairly nice sights of the biosphere from a different spot.

From Biosphere 2

From Biosphere 2

Along our way into the actual building, we were greeted by some deer playing on the lawn. They ran off when they realized we were there, but it was a treat to see them.

From Biosphere 2

From Biosphere 2

(Another view of the Biosphere near the lawn)

We soon entered the building from the tour entry way. We were now inside the Biosphere. Amazing. And I wasn't even describing what the place looks like. I was just calling the act of entering the place amazing.

So when you enter the Biosphere from the tour entry way, you are greeted by a hall with a kitchen in a classic 70s new-age style and massive stone table (quite an impressive table, I might add). However, there's also a hall that looks somewhat uninviting, but that was where I was to head.

From Biosphere 2

And thus ends part 2 of First Impressions. Now we're actually in the building! The next posting will go through some of the different areas contained within the actual biosphere, and possibly some architectural elements.

To view a slideshow of the First Impressions photos, please click here.

First Impressions Part 1

So it was my first day working at Biosphere 2. I had never previously been up to the biosphere, but I had heard vague mentions of it before, and when my ecology teacher, Dr. Pavao-Zuckerman, brought up the mention of a research assistant position being available, I jumped at the chance -- and 2 others jumped with me: my fellow research assistants Whitney and Catalina. Before I knew it, we were all ready and set for our first day at the Biosphere!

So, as some of you may have figured out, the Biosphere really isn't very close to the center of Tucson. That would be an understatement. It's quite a distance aways. But the trip is completely worth it! Along the way you can get many wondrous views of Mount Lemon and the mountain ranges, as well as observe the desert plant life shift as you increase in elevation.

After roughly an hours journey from the University of Arizona up to the Biosphere, I was greeted with a most wondrous sight, as we turned onto the biosphere road:

From Biosphere 2

After going through the main gates and a little side route for employees only (hooray!) we wound around a corner, eagerly looking for the biosphere. Sure enough, it became visible in the distance.

From Biosphere 2

And finally... it came into full view. It really was a marvel to see.

From Biosphere 2

More of my first impressions to come...

To view a slideshow of the First Impressions photos, please click here.