June
26, 2007 The The University
will lease the 34.5-acre (14
hectare) Biosphere 2 campus in Oracle, "UA will develop
Biosphere 2 into a
center for research, outreach, teaching and life-long learning about
Earth, its
living systems and its place in the universe," said Joaquin Ruiz, dean
of
UA's "At Biosphere 2,
we will address not
only the problems of our current condition, but also those of the 22nd
century
that are still below the horizon." UA President
Robert Shelton is excited by the
potential that Biosphere 2 offers. “The
generous gift from the Philecology
Foundation, founded by Edward P. Bass, substantially expands the
University's
ability to link teaching, scholarship and creativity to the needs of Under the UA's
management, Biosphere 2 will
continue as a major regional attraction and also serve as a laboratory
for
controlled scientific studies, an arena for scientific discovery and
discussion, and a far-reaching public education center. B2
Earthscience,
directed by UA Associate Professor of ecology and evolutionary biology
Travis
E. Huxman, will address issues of global environmental change using a
multidisciplinary approach. B2 Institute, directed by UA Regents'
Professor of
physics and optical sciences Pierre Meystre, will conduct
interdisciplinary
programs to tackle scientific "Grand Challenges." In addition, the
UA will operate the popular
Biosphere 2 tours. From 1991-2007, the facility had 2.3 million
visitors.
Biosphere 2 will serve B2 Earthscience
Director Huxman said,
"As a research facility, Biosphere 2 is unique in its spatial scale.
The
facility provides us a bridge between our small-scale, controlled,
laboratory-based understandings of earth processes and experiments in
field
settings where we cannot control all environmental conditions.
Biosphere 2's
size allows us to do controlled experimentation at an unprecedented
scale. "A unique aspect
of this facility is its
ability to support experiments that will provide us the missing link
between
laboratory and real world." “I
salute the University’s deep commitment to
conduct research in the Biosphere that will advance our understanding
of the
Earth, its biosphere and the impact upon it," said Ed Bass, co-founder
of
Biosphere 2 and president of the Philecology Foundation.
“Biosphere 2 was
initially created as a tool to probe the essential environmental
questions we
must ask in the 21st century, and I look forward with great
anticipation to
what UA will discover.” The
controlled-environment facility, 3.14
acres (1.27 hectares) in area, is sealed from the earth below by a
500-ton
(453,600 kg) welded stainless steel liner. Ninety-one feet (28 meters)
at its
highest point, it has 6,500 windows that enclose a volume of 7.2
million cubic
feet (204,000 cubic meters) under glass. One initial
experiment addresses key
interactions between plants and water. Within the facility, the
researchers
will build three hill slopes, each about 32 yards (30 meters) long and
22 yards
(20 meters) wide, to test how water moves down, into and across the
slopes. "Then we will
introduce plants and ask
how having life on a landscape changes the behavior of water, both in
the air
and in the soil," Huxman said. "We are interested in how plants
modify their environment -- how they change the amount of time a water
molecule
spends in the soil and how that affects the biogeochemical reactions
that
happen in soil only when it is wet." The plants,
grasses and shrubs, will be
typical of the desert, grassland and savannah ecosystems that cover
more than
one-half of The Biosphere 2
facility will allow the
researchers to control and measure what enters and leaves the huge
experimental
chamber. A large and sophisticated array of sensors deployed throughout
the
chamber's atmosphere and the hill slopes will monitor environmental
factors,
including water, carbon dioxide, temperature, trace gases and pH. Inside, the team
will control temperature and
rainfall to mimic the environmental conditions right outside the
chamber. Just
outside the chamber, the researchers will build replicas of the indoor
hill
slopes and conduct the same experiments. Mimicking the local conditions
inside
the chamber will let the scientists compare the gigantic indoor
controlled-conditions experiment with the hill slopes outside that are
exposed
to natural conditions. All of these experiments will be linked to
existing
research projects throughout the Southwest. "Quantifying these
processes is key
knowledge for managing our natural resources in periods of uncertainty
now and
in the future," Huxman said. The public will be
able to watch the research
as it unfolds, he said. "This is one of the only research facilities
that
will be completely open to the public. When people go on a tour, they
won't
just hear a wonderful description of the Biosphere 2’s
history. They will be
able to watch research in action and learn what is going on
moment-to-moment." ##
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