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Earth Systems Research Facility

Biosphere 2 is an Earth systems science research facility located in Oracle, Arizona that is owned by the University of Arizona. It is a 3.14-acre glass structure originally built to study closed ecological systems. Its mission is research, outreach, teaching and lifelong learning about Earth and its living systems. It contains representative biomes like a rainforest, ocean, and grasslands to explore interactions within a closed environment.

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17 views2 pages

Earth Systems Research Facility

Biosphere 2 is an Earth systems science research facility located in Oracle, Arizona that is owned by the University of Arizona. It is a 3.14-acre glass structure originally built to study closed ecological systems. Its mission is research, outreach, teaching and lifelong learning about Earth and its living systems. It contains representative biomes like a rainforest, ocean, and grasslands to explore interactions within a closed environment.

Uploaded by

reinerpineda24
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Pineda, Reiner C.

Archi 3 – A

B iosphere 2 is an Earth systems


science research facility. It has
been owned by the University of
Arizona since 2011. Its mission is to serve
as a center for research, outreach,
teaching and lifelong learning about
Earth, its living systems, and its place in
the universe. It is a 3.14-acre (1.27-
hectare)[1] structure originally built to be
an artificial, materially closed ecological
system in Oracle, Arizona, US by Space Biosphere
Biosphere Ventures, a joint venture whose 2 sits on a sprawling 40-acre (16-hectare)
principal officers were John P. Allen, inventor science campus that is open to the public.
and Executive Director, and Margret Augustine,
CEO. Constructed between 1987 and 1991, it The size of two and a half football fields, it
explored the web of interactions within life remains the largest closed system created.[2]
systems in a structure with five areas based on The glass facility is elevated 4,000 feet (1,200
biomes, and an agricultural area and human m) above sea level at the base of the Santa
living and working space to study the Catalina Mountains, half an hour outside
interactions between humans, farming and Tucson.[3]
technology with the rest of nature. It also
explored the use of closed biospheres in space
colonization, and allowed the study and Biosphere 2 contained representative biomes:
manipulation of a biosphere without harming a 1,900 square meter rainforest, an 850 square
Earth's. The name comes from Earth's meter ocean with a coral reef, a 450 square
biosphere, "Biosphere 1". Project funding came meter mangrove wetlands, a 1,300 square
primarily from the joint venture's financial meter savannah grassland, a 1,400 square
partner, Ed Bass' Decisions Investment, costing meter fog desert, a 2,500 square meter
US$200 million from 1985 to 2007, including agricultural system, a human habitat, and a
land, support research greenhouses, test below-ground infrastructure. Heating and
module, and staff facilities.[citation needed] cooling water circulated through independent
piping systems and passive solar input through
the glass space frame panels covering most of
the facility, and electrical power was supplied
into Biosphere 2 from an onsite natural gas
energy center.

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