TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/092490/0924330.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 6.8 KB | 146 lines

                                                                                ENVIRONMENT, Page 72

Noah's Ark -- the Sequel


To test ideas for outposts on other planets, scientists have
built a replica of earth in the Arizona desert

By EDWIN M. REINGOLD/ORACLE


    In the high Sonoran desert north of Tucson, amid blooming
cacti, rattlesnakes and Gila monsters, a remarkable building
is taking shape. Covering 1.3 hectares (3.15 acres) and
sheltered under a gleaming, 26-meter-high (85-ft.)
cathedral-like latticework roof of steel tubing and glass,
Biosphere II is both an architectural wonder and a scientific
tour de force. In December eight people will be sealed inside
for two years, getting nothing from the outside but
information, electricity and sunshine. Along with 3,800 plants
and dozens of species of invertebrates, mammals and other
living organisms, they will form the largest self-sustaining
ecosystem ever built.

    The human inhabitants of this mini-world -- four men and
four women, all single -- were named last week. Ranging in age
from 26 to 66, they come from the U.S., West Germany, Britain
and Belgium, and include a physician, a botanist, a marine
biologist and experts on engineering and agriculture. Says crew
leader Bernd Zabel, who was general manager for Biosphere's
construction: "The closer the day comes, the more excited I
get."

    The $60 million experiment, financed by a group of venture
capitalists led by Texas billionaire Edward Bass, has two basic
purposes. One is to test ideas for building outposts on other
planets, where long stays would be common and resupply
impossible. But Biosphere II is more than just the prototype
of a space colony. It is a means of learning more about how the
earth -- "Biosphere I," in project jargon -- sustains itself
through the recycling of water, air and nutrients. Along the
way, Space Biospheres Ventures, the company sponsoring the
experiment, hopes to find ideas it can market, from
air-purification technologies to new varieties of crops.

    Scientists have been developing the physical plant of
Biosphere II for six years, using techniques that have enabled
modern zoos and botanical gardens to put diverse habitats
together in relatively narrow confines. At the same time, they
have searched the world for representative flora and fauna that
can re-create five different miniature biomes, or ecosystems:
rain forest, savanna, desert, ocean and marsh.

    The results are spectacular. The structure, built on a
slope, is dominated by a soaring Amazonian rain forest, lush
with 300 species of plants. At its periphery, tree ferns and
bromeliads flank a stream that leads to a mountainside
flood-plain forest and an open vista of tropical savanna.
There, plants from Africa, Australia and South America bask in
a less humid atmosphere, where bees and hummingbirds help
pollinate plants and a colony of termites aids in the
decomposition of dying material.

    A transition zone of thorn scrub from Madagascar and Mexico
leads onto a Baja California desert biome. The stream,
meanwhile, meanders to the saltwater marsh (transported in
sections from the Florida Everglades) that gives onto the
10.6-meter-deep (35-ft.) ocean with its own coral reef and
waves that can rise as high as 1.2 meters (4 ft.). Mangroves
in the marsh are host to frogs, turtles and crabs, and the
ocean includes 1,000 species of plants and animals.

    The wilderness biomes, stretching along the horizontal axis
of the T-shaped structure, will be nice places to visit, but
the eight Biosphereans will not live there. Their home is in
the stem of the T, where they will grow their food in a
0.2-hectare (0.5-acre) area. Although the experiment will not
start for a few months, the farm is already producing crops.
Rice grows in flooded paddies that are shared with tilapias --
African fish -- which eat algae and water ferns and in turn
fertilize the water with their waste. Papaya and bananas are
ripening in moist heat and late-summer sun. Sorghum, amaranth,
dill, oregano, soybeans, corn, tomatoes, onions and other crops
are all growing in compost without pesticides and with only
natural predators, such as spiders, wasps, lacewings and
ladybugs, to keep voracious insects away.

    The absence of pesticides and the emphasis on natural
fertilizer are designed not only to keep the experiment as
untainted as possible, but also to protect the health of the
human consumers; because all the air and water in Biosphere II
is continually recycled and regenerated, it is important that
no poisons be introduced into the system anywhere. Otherwise,
as a project scientist puts it, "we'd be drinking pollutants in
a couple of days."

    Isolated as they are, the Biosphereans will at least have
reasonably comfortable accommodations. Each person has a
34-sq.-meter (360-sq.-ft.) apartment, with a common dining hall
and recreation facilities. They will have computer and voice
communications with the outside world and their own Mission
Control. In case of emergency, someone can be removed through
an air lock without interfering with the functioning of the
closed environment.

    Margret Augustine, the project's director and co-architect,
estimates that the Biosphereans will spend about four hours a
day doing scientific work and four hours on food production.
Eggs will be collected from the Biospherean chickens, milk from
the Biospherean goats, fish from the rice paddies or the ocean,
meat from a plentiful supply of Vietnamese potbellied pigs.
Surveying the desert biome he helped build from a cliffside in
the savannah area, botanist Tony Burgess of the University of
Arizona admits, "I thought I knew a lot about ecology when I
started this. But this has been the most humbling experience
of my life. Mies van der Rohe was right when he said, `God is
in the details.'"

    It has been a formidable task to organize these details --
assembling plant strains, microbes, insects, and putting them
together with bats, bush babies, lizards, tortoises and other
life forms. No one expects all the species to survive; in fact,
Burgess believes that between a quarter and a third will become
extinct during the two-year period. But that is part of the
experiment as well. Scientists do not necessarily know which
plants and animals are best suited to self-contained habitats,
and trial and error is the only way to be sure. Says Carl
Hodges, director of the Environmental Research Laboratory of
the University of Arizona, who directed the research and
development for Biosphere's farm: "This is not an academic
exercise meant to generate Ph.D.s." If it works, it will
instead be hailed as one of the most concrete contributions
ever made to understanding the workings of Biosphere I.