Celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day at the University of Arizona Biosphere 2 in Oracle. There will be tours of the research center's five habitat environments, live music and sustainability exhibits. Visitors can join artists and sculptors to create an interactive art piece outside the Biosphere.
Visitors can learn the history of the site from one of the first Biospherians, Jane Poynter. She was part of the eight-member crew who lived sealed inside the 3-acre dome for two years, from September 1991 to September 1993. Poynter has described life in the Biosphere as "living in the Garden of Eden atop an aircraft carrier."
Two key challenges of that first mission were the ability to produce enough food for the crew and the complexity of balancing the oxygen and carbon-dioxide levels inside the structure. Eventually, oxygen had to be pumped in.
"It was a significant challenge, but we learned a tremendous amount. This was the first time that anything like this was ever created, so we could study interactions between the systems," said John Adams, assistant director of planning and facilities for Biosphere 2.
Biosphere 2 was built from 1987 to 1991 for the purpose of exploring the relationships among life systems in five biomes - equatorial rain forest
, saltwater ocean, savannah, marsh and coastal fog desert. Visitors can take guided tours through each habitat, beginning in the apartments where crew members lived during the 1991-93 mission and a six-month mission in 1994. That endeavor was cut short by a management dispute.
The structure has 3.15 acres under glass. Here's what visitors can see in each of the five biomes:
• Equatorial rain forest: There are 90 species of plants, some 20 years old.
• Saltwater ocean: It contains more than 1 million gallons of water and is modeled after a Caribbean reef environment. Research focuses on the effects of carbon dioxide on coral.
• Savannah: Area features acacia trees and grasslands.
• Marsh: Area includes three species of mango trees: red, black and white.
• Coastal fog desert: Area is modeled after the Baja California coast.
In June 2007, Biosphere 2 was purchased by CDO Ranching and Development, and is now managed by the University of Arizona. The university is conducting a large experiment looking at how water interacts with soil and plants.
"We couldn't do it anywhere else," Adams said.
Biosphere 2 to host 40th Earth Day fest
