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.