Exploring in BIOSPHERE 2
Being so close to the University of Arizona Campus has given us access to a lot of really cool experiences, shows and activities we did not expect. One of these is Biosphere 2. This is a research center run by the University of Arizona deep in the desert designed to study the earth through a series of massive indoor biodomes featuring everything from a simulated ocean, desert, rainforest and living quarters for the researchers. Is anyone else just thinking about the 1996 film, Bio-Dome, featuring Pauly Shore? Because I am! Get your purple sticky punch ready and blast the Safety Dance, because it’s time to nerd out on everything PLANET EARTH!
Mile: 79,622
Quote of the Blog: “The earth has music, for those who are willing to listen. - William Shakespeare
Song of the Blog: “Safety Dance (Bio-Dome Movie)” - Men Without Hats
The Biosphere 2 is 20 miles north of Tucson. Just passed the Catalina Mountain State Park, it is surrounded by beautiful desert and mountains. The name Biosphere 2 is named out of respect for Biosphere 1; aka Planet Earth. The facility is really big and takes up several acers of facilities, power generators, operations offices and the actual facility itself takes up over three and a half acers. It was not an expensive ticket, which was nice. Once we got our entry into the grounds, we began our self-guided tour. As we walked around the outside of the building, the vastness of the faculty is what struck me the most. I guess if it has a rainforest in it, the facility has to be huge! Not only is it massive, but it’s all one big greenhouse of sorts, so that they can naturally grow plants inside. The first section that we walked into was the researcher living center. When this facility first opened in 1991 it was closed off to the public. For the first four years of the facility’s existence, researchers spent 2 year intervales living inside the biosphere. They were closed off to the outside world studying sustainability, diversity and how humans impact the climate. The movie Bio-Dome was 100% a spoof on this facility. Glad they made that movie! We quickly moved through the living quarters area, as we were here to see plants and things, not kitchens and bedrooms.
As we made our way into some of the indoor gardens, we watched a quick informational movie and passed one of the cooler elements at Biosphere, called the LEO (or Land Evolution Observatory). This is a really cool research project in which they are able to large scale simulations different clients, topography at a hydrology to see how change naturally happens when different elements are in play. They are able to do this by scaling things down to a micro level, but the size of the LEO project area is nearly half the size of a football field, so they can customize it to meet just about any environmental layout. Pretty amazing hydrology, geology and environmental science coming from LEO!
We then made our way into the gardens. We first started in a desert setting. Very familiar to what it just outside of the glass walls. They had a couple exotic kinds of cacti and desert plants, so that was fun. As we moved passed the desert area we worked into a more moderate forest. The cacti turned to trees. They had everything from Maple trees to Avocado Trees to Coffee Trees. Birds had made their way into the facility and could be heard flying around the treetops as we walked through. They had also designed the area to naturally hydrate the soil as much as possible, so running creeks and cascades ran throughout the walk. After just a couple months in the desert, seeing some deciduous trees again is a pleasant and simple treat! The path wanders through the forest and up some stair to an upper platform. More sub-tropical trees were growing up here, along with some beautiful flowers. This area gave a great overlook of the ocean simulation area they have. The coolest thing they are doing here, is research into what natural elements need to be present for bleached coral reefs to swing back into good health and come back from death.
As we moved out of this garden room, we opened the door reading “Rainforest”. We were immediately hit with the kind of humidity that will fog up your glasses the moment you walk into it. It was a beautiful sight! This is the tallest and largest garden room in Biosphere 2. The roof has to be around 100’ tall, with massive tropical trees growing to the ceiling. Their vines hung down and interconnected with other trees throughout the area. All around were large tropical plants with massive leaves and deep green colors. Running water could be heard and the leaves in the canopy bustled to life with a slight draft circulating the air in the garden. As we stood there taking it all in, a photographer came up to us and asked us if we would be willing to be filmed for an advertisement he was making for Biosphere 2. We said yes, channeled our inner GlacierWild and nailed it! We hope to see the advertisement sometime soon. As we walked out, we were blown away with the scale of this facility. Not only that, but also the fact that people would live in here for years on end! We can’t even live in one place for more than 6 months, before we need to get down the road!
As our self-guided tour worked us back outside, we couldn’t have been happier to have done this activity. We learned quite a bit in a short period of time. What they used to use to see how human can colonize mars, they are now using to study how humans and climate change are impacting earth itself. They are less focused on terraforming other environments, and more focused on helping the earth’s environment. We have a long and daunting task ahead of us to maintain and minimize the impacts of emissions, deforestation and urbanization of the world. Places like Biosphere 2 are places that give us hope. If you are ever in the Tucson area, put two hours of your time to this activity. You won’t be disappointed. You are all but guaranteed to walk out of it and look around at the Sonoran Desert and be grateful for the beautiful Biosphere 1 we live in! The only thing that would have made us Live Rad even more than we did was if someone could have blasted the Safety Dance song while we frolicked through the forest…