Biosphere 2 is a miniature artificial ecological circulation system built by the United States in the desert north of Tucson, Arizona. It is named because the earth itself is called biosphere 1. It was initiated by John Allen, a former American football player, and was jointly funded by several consortia and entrusted to the Space Biosphere Venture Capital Company. It lasted for 8 years and cost 65.438+0.5 billion US dollars. Biosphere 2 aims to carry out ecological and environmental research in a closed state, help people understand how the earth works, and study whether human beings are suitable for survival under the condition of simulating the ecological environment of the earth. In order to be as close to the natural environment as possible, the soil, turf, seawater and fresh water in the circle are taken from different geographical areas outside and reused after some manual treatment. For example, the seawater used in the experiment is a mixture of seawater and fresh water in a proper proportion.
Why did this experiment fail? Scientists have summarized this: in addition to the reasons such as more carbon dioxide, less oxygen and imbalance of water cycle, the imbalance of biological species relationship is also an important reason. It turns out that although the designer simulated a variety of ecosystems in Biosphere 2, the introduced organisms were mainly producers, and the types and quantities of animals, fungi and bacteria were few. When the pollinating insects die, some plants only bloom without fruit. Due to the reduction of animal species and proper amount, there are few plants, and I am afraid the proportion is still wrong. In the real biosphere, everyone's atmosphere, water and plants are so vast, and what about No.2? The ratio of environmental resources to people is seriously small, such as atmosphere, water and plants. One person is not enough, let alone several people.
More carbon dioxide and less oxygen are the result, not the cause. Carbon dioxide is more than oxygen because there are relatively few plants, which are not enough to transform so much carbon dioxide produced by people and plants themselves and release oxygen. The consumption rate of oxygen is higher than the production rate, while the production of carbon dioxide is higher than the consumption.
What is the current situation of Biosphere 2, which is regarded as a negative textbook? Or "luxury pseudoscience"? Did the huge sum of money invested by American oil giants hit Shui Piao? A few years ago, after the experiment of recreating a "mini-earth" in the desert of Arizona failed, Biosphere 2, which cost 200 million dollars, became a laughing stock for a time, and even was denounced as "extravagant pseudoscience". To this day, Biosphere 2 is still regarded by many as a negative textbook that despises nature. However, perhaps few people have noticed that Biosphere 2 is quietly changing in recent years: it has attracted a large number of tourists and students and become an excellent tourist attraction and educational base; More importantly, it has gradually won the respect of the scientific community and become a very rare global climate change impact research center. Someone once put forward a seemingly impossible idea, recreating a "mini-earth" on the earth where we live, exploring the possibility of human self-sufficiency in this modern "Nanniwan" and establishing living space on the future moon or Mars. Edward Bass, an oil tycoon in Texas, USA, is looking forward to this.
From 1984 to 199 1, Bass personally invested 200 million dollars to build Biosphere 2 in the desert north of Tucson, Arizona, USA. Biosphere 2 covers an area of 13000 square meters, like a huge greenhouse, from rainforests, deserts, grasslands to oceans. "Biosphere 1" is the earth where we live. As the name implies, Biosphere 2 is a "mini-earth".
1991On September 26th, Biosphere 2 welcomed the first batch of volunteers, and four men and four women began to live in isolation for two years. Although these residents spent several years in advance to receive good training in engineering and agriculture. (one of them even received dental training) and has technical support that costs millions of dollars every year, various disasters still follow: a large number of animals and plants die, but cockroaches and ants are full of children and grandchildren; To make matters worse, by June 1993 1, the oxygen content of Biosphere 2 had dropped from 2 1% to 14%, and the illusion of self-sufficiency was completely shattered.
The experiment failed. After a short rest, Biosphere 2 welcomed the second group of residents. After living for one and a half months, five men and two women were forced to leave on September 1994 because of excessive accumulation of nitrous oxide (N2O), and the experiment ended in failure again. Since then, no one has lived in Biosphere 2.
A "utopian" scientific research plan went bankrupt, and Biosphere 2 was mercilessly ridiculed by some people, and some even denounced it as "extravagant pseudoscience".
Of course, Biosphere 2 also made people understand a seemingly simple truth: "At present, the earth is still the only home for human beings." Not only that, it also inadvertently left some good stories for people.
Biosphere 2 is called "Little United Nations", and its residents come from seven countries including the United States, Britain, Mexico and Nepal. In this "little United Nations", the flowers of love have been cultivated. A few months after the experiment, one of the two groups of residents got married. This may be an old saying: a friend in need is a friend indeed.
In addition, due to the poor harvest, the residents of Biosphere 2 had to control their diet. Results In the first group, the average weight of four men and four women decreased by 65,438+08% and 65,438+00% respectively, and the average cholesterol decreased from 65,438+095 to 65,438+025, which added a surprise to those who usually suffered from losing weight. A resident at that time, Professor Roy Wofford of UCLA, continued to eat even then, "because it was good for health". From this painful experience, Buzz is determined to adjust the positioning of Biosphere 2. So he turned to scientists at Columbia University to see what Biosphere 2, which cost 200 million dollars, could do.
1996 65438+ 10, Bath simply handed over Biosphere 2 to Columbia University, and invested 40 million dollars as the renovation and operation expenses in the next five years. After some consideration, Columbia University plans to transform Biosphere 2 into a research center dedicated to earth system science, and invites William Harris as the new director. Harris has worked in the National Science Foundation for many years and is an expert in managing large-scale scientific research projects.
In fact, the $200 million spent on the construction of Biosphere 2 did not "completely hit Shui Piao" as some media said. Take the man-made ocean with a capacity of 3.78 million liters, which is undoubtedly a good platform for studying marine science. This is probably one of the reasons why Columbia and Harris are willing to take over this mess. During the transition period, Biosphere 2 first faced pain and confusion. Scientists are divided about the use of Biosphere 2. Some people hope to make Biosphere 2 a research center of biodiversity, while others hope to focus on the study of global change effects. Coupled with technical difficulties, the renovation plan was once frustrated and morale was greatly affected. Some scientists left Biosphere 2 one after another.
As the saying goes, the peak turns around. Two years later, the artificial ocean finally "splashed some water". According to the paper published in February 1998 in the American magazine Science, with the increase of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide content in Biosphere 2, the survival of corals in the artificial ocean is threatened.
Such a paper may not be a big deal to outsiders, but it is likely to be a turning point for Biosphere 2. Today, global warming has attracted more and more attention from the international community, and that paper clearly shows that Biosphere 2 is an ideal platform to study how global warming affects ecosystems.
In April, 20001,the world famous botanist Berry Osmond succeeded Harris to lead Biosphere 2. Dr. Lin Guanghui from Biosphere 2 Research Center told this reporter that Biosphere 2 has carried out many research projects related to global climate change and attracted many world-class scientists.
In scientific research, I'm afraid no one can guarantee that as long as there is investment, there will be returns. There are many examples of hundreds of millions of investments at home and abroad. The question is whether we understand the real reason for the failure of scientific research plans and whether we really understand that "failure is the mother of success". The past and present of Biosphere 2 provide us with an excellent model.