Invasive Plants and Climate Change Will Alter Desert Landscapes

In experiments conducted in Biosphere 2, invasive buffelgrass weathers higher temperatures and drought conditions better than its native brethren.

Trends in Media Coverage and Information Diffusion Over Time: The Case of the American Earth Systems Research Centre Biosphere 2

This study examined research centre Biosphere 2 (B2) coverage by US newspapers between 1984 (as stories of conception before construction emerged) and 2019 (at the time this research was conducted) in order to uncover news diffusion relative to B2 in public media across historic eras and amid shifts in stakeholders over time. The analysis focussed on how a scientific institution and its innovative activities implied values, impacted the meaning-making of its project, as well as influenced the amount of information shared across sources (i.e., regional, metropole or elite) and media scale (i.e., local, regional, national outlets). This analysis identified nine eras delimited by scientific or organisational events. The findings emerging from this study can inform understandings of media behaviour around other scientific institutions and experiments.

The technical non-reproducibility of the Earth system: Scale, Biosphere 2, and T.C. Boyle’s Terranauts

The Anthropocene concept draws on a technologically mediated macroscale, allegedly all-encompassing perspective on the interconnectedness of planetary, social and cultural systems. It is thus part of a genealogy traceable to systems thinking and cybernetic imaginaries of planetary-scale controllability; but at the same time, it relies on a techno-scientific infrastructure that is part of the accumulation of technical entities which Peter Haff calls “technosphere.” This oscillation between technology as a means of control and as an autonomous system that is inaccessible to sensual experience constitutes a theoretical challenge. Responding to this challenge, we combine Haff’s “technosphere” theory with a focus on the aspect of scale and the environmental character of technology. We discuss the Biosphere 2 experiment and its literary reflection in T.C. Boyle’s novel The Terranauts (2016) as an example of an attempted lower-scale technological reproduction of the Earth system. We show that the experiment suggests that technology has to be conceived as both scale variant (its functions differ across scales) and independent from its scale (as always already constituted by its respective environment).

Biosphere 2’s Lessons about Living on Earth and in Space

Biosphere 2, the largest and most biodiverse closed ecological system facility yet created, has contributed vital lessons for living with our planetary biosphere and for long-term habitation in space. From the space life support perspective, Biosphere 2 contrasted with previous BLSS work by including areas based on Earth wilderness biomes in addition to its provision for human life support and by using a soil-based intensive agricultural system producing a complete human diet. No previous BLSS system had included domestic farm animals. All human and domestic animal wastes were also recycled and returned to the crop soils. Biosphere 2 was important as a first step towards learning how to miniaturize natural ecosystems and develop technological support systems compatible with life. Biosphere 2’s mostly successful operation for three years (1991-1994) changed thinking among space life support scientists and the public at large about the need for minibiospheres for long-term habitation in space. As an Earth systems laboratory, Biosphere 2 was one of the first attempts to make ecology an experimental science at a scale relevant to planetary issues such as climate change, regenerative agriculture, nutrient and water recycling, loss of biodiversity, and understanding of the roles wilderness biomes play in the Earth’s biosphere. Biosphere 2 aroused controversy because of narrow definitions and expectations of how science is to be conducted. The cooperation between engineers and ecologists and the requirement to design a technosphere that supported the life inside without harming it have enormous relevance to what is required in our global home. Applications of bioregenerative life support systems for near-term space applications such as initial Moon and/or Mars bases, will be severely limited by high costs of transport to space and so will rely on lighter weight, hydroponic systems of growing plants which will focus first on water and air regeneration and gradually increase its production of food required by astronauts or inhabitants. The conversion of these systems to more robust and sustainable systems will require advanced technologies, e.g., to capture sunlight for plant growth or process usable materials from the lunar or Martian atmosphere and regolith, leading to greater utilization of in situ space resources and less on transport from Earth. There are many approaches to the accomplishment of space life support. Significant progress has been made especially by two research efforts in China and the MELiSSA project of the European Space Agency. These approaches use cybernetic controls and the integration of intensive modules to accomplish food production, waste treatment and recycling, atmospheric regeneration, and in some systems, high-protein production from insects and larvae. Biosphere 2 employed a mix of ecological self-organization and human intervention to protect biodiversity for wilderness biomes with a tighter management of food crops in its agriculture. Biosphere 2’s aims were different than bioregenerative life support systems (BLSS) which have focused exclusively on human life support. Much more needs to be learned from both smaller, efficient ground-based BLSS for nearer-term habitation and from minibiospheric systems for long-term space application to transform humanity and Earth-life into truly multiplanet species.

Effects of drought conditions on VOC soil fluxes within the rainforest mesocosm of Biosphere 2

<p>Volatile organic compounds (VOC) play an important role in determining atmospheric processes that control air quality and climate. Although atmospheric VOC concentrations are mostly affected by plants, soils are significant contributors as they are simultaneously a source, a sink and a storage of atmospheric VOCs. The aim of the present study was to assess the effects of a prolonged drought condition on VOC soil fluxes in the tropical rainforest mesocosm of Biosphere 2 (B2; Tucson, Arizona, USA). The absence of atmospheric chemistry due to UV light filtering by the glass and the possibility to control and manipulate the conditions of the ecosystem make the B2 an ideal set-up to study the rainforest VOC dynamics.</p><p>The experiments were conducted over the 4 months B2WALD campaign during which the rainforest was subjected to a controlled drought period of about 10 weeks followed by a rewetting period. Soil VOCs fluxes were measured continuously by means of a proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PTR-ToF-MS) that was connected to 12 automated soil chambers (LI 8100-104 Long-Term Chambers, Licor Inc.) placed in 4 different locations within the B2 rainforest.</p><p>The B2 rainforest soil acted as a strong sink for all isoprenoid species. The isoprene sink steadily weakened during drought period, but increased sharply back to the pre-drought levels after the rain rewet. In contrast, the monoterpene soil sink became slightly stronger during the mild drought period (up to 5 weeks after the last rainfall) but weakened during the severe drought period (up to 10 weeks after rainfall). A huge increase in monoterpene uptake was observed after the rain rewet. The oxidation products of isoprene (methacrolein, methyl vinyl ketone and isoprene peroxides) showed a similar trend to the monoterpenes, even in absence of atmospheric chemistry. The species with molecular formula C5H8O was taken up by the soil during predrought, which was reduced during mild drought period but increased again during the severe drought period.Sulfur-containing compounds including DMS and methanethiol all showed a significant emission peak immediately after the rain rewet.Oxygenated VOCs such as methanol and acetone were taken up by the soil in wet conditions. The uptake of both compounds strongly decreased with the drought and in severe drought conditions they were even emitted by the soil.</p><p>In summary, soil VOC fluxes changed markedly with the onset and development drought stages (pre, mild and severe drought) of the B2 rainforest, mirroring atmospheric VOC concentrations and soil microbial activity changes related to overall ecosystem response to drought and recovery.</p>