[A-OS13] Continental Oceanic Mutual Interaction - Planetary Scale Material Circulationn

[AOS13-07] Biosphere 2 - Challenges in transferring Biome into different planet

★Invited Papers

*John Adams¹ (1.Deputy Director, Biosphere 2, The University of Arizona)

Keywords:Biosphere 2, Migration, Biome

If you wish to study the underlying causes of a specific disease, you start by examining an animal model that would simulate the human condition. If you want to study a subset of geological events on earth, also known as Biosphere 1, you might design a miniature system, but what do you do if you want to study the B1's entire complex geology, environment and ecology? Well, you build Biosphere 2 AKA B2. And so, in 1987 a vision was born, funded by Ed Bass an ecologically minded philanthropist, to assemble steel, concrete, soil, sea water, and plants to build a model of B1 consisting of seven biomes and 8 humans who would live for almost two years under the dome. The experiment was an outstanding success in engineering terms but fell short as a sustainable planetary ecosystem analog. Eventually B2 science became rigorous, exciting and yielding results applicable not only to B1, our own earth, but also to possibilities of imitating B1 extra terrestrially. Today, B2 is the largest earth science living laboratory in which precise scientific explorations are underway as part of the University of Arziona. For the B2 interdisciplinary investigative team, a major driving force is the question: "How do biological communities organize and respond to landscape evolution and environmental change?". It is a highly complex initiative that encompasses the intricate interactions of the "Earth's system consisting of water, air, soil, plants, microbes and animals". One specific project designed to address these complex interactions is the LEO project in which B2 serves as the Landscape Evolution Observatory, the world’s largest laboratory experiment in the interdisciplinary Earth sciences".

So, whether you are interested in geology, water conservation, carbon dioxide (greenhouse gases) production and sequestration, global climate change, or whether your interests lie in a "place far far away", you will find this lecture, to be presented by John Adams, Deputy Director of Biosphere 2, most interesting, enlightening and impactful. As the administrative and research overseer of B2, Adams is involved with of the many research projects and educational initiatives of this unique unit of the University of Arizona. In this lecture, Adams will discuss some of these project, and how they impact our understanding of our own biosphere—Earth.