Monday July 8, Day 3
Research inside Biosphere 2

By Breegan O'Hearn

Today we took a tour of Biosphere 2 for the first time. I was thrilled to check the whole building out and I was not disappointed. Standing inside the giant glass building, and seeing the space in which the biospherians lived was surreal. From the inside, the glass walls seemed even more massive and the special care taken to maintain the building was incredible. Prior to experiencing Biosphere 2 I had imagined only being able to look into the different biomes via a glass viewing area. I had no idea we were allowed to walk inside the different environments and experience everything up close. Biosphere 2 is such a unique place and I am so thankful for having the opportunity to visit it.

Field research under the solar panels

Later, we were placed in our research groups and then we split off to get to work. In our group we were introduced to the study of Algrivoltaics. We started off slow because we weren’t sure what questions we wanted to ask. After learning about all the machines and what the research area was composed of, we began our process of brainstorming. It was difficult to connect multiple topics of photosynthesis, plant stress, sun, and water all into one question. We worked together to form our ideas and started gathering our data. The machines were so interesting to work with because they had a lot of problems when they were running and it could get quite frustrating. This gave me a lot of respect for the researchers because they have to deal with these problems regularly during long days. By the end of the day we got more data than we anticipated and now we are prepared for our next day of data gathering.

Entrance to Rain Forest Biome  

  By Kimber Hageman

Today, I had a really great experience finally going into Biosphere 2 and beginning research! Touring the biosphere was an eye-opening and mind blowing experience for me. I got to see plant life and environments that I’ve never been able to visit before -- like the rain forest. Visiting the ocean was one of the most interesting and heartbreaking aspects of the tour. Katie, our tour guide, told us about the experiment that replicated on a small scale how rising CO2 levels lead to coral bleaching and the death of coral reefs. It was crazy to look down at the mini ocean from an overlook to see the overgrowth of algae covering it entirely with absolutely no coral in sight. Since the experiment replicated processes that are already happening around the globe -- like in the Great Barrier Reef -- seeing the coral-less ocean in real life was a horrifying snapshot of our future. 

After the tour of the biosphere, I was put in the LEO group. With my group, I got to go behind the scenes to see the LEO (Landscape Evolution Observatory). We are doing research on what type of soil is best for the growth of Serrano Peppers. To do so, we have to look at four main factors: soil retention, soil infiltration, the plant’s rate of photosynthesis, and how much the plant produces (buds and leaves). Once again, my eyes were really opened to how intricate and important simplistic sounding research is. If I were to tell someone random about the LEO, what it studies and what we are studying on a smaller scale, they might shrug it off as not very important. However, studying how water moves through soil is so important for a whole host of reasons. It is crucial for farming, understanding drinking water supplies, and flood patterns. So basically, if you eat water, drink food, or live on land, this research is a really big deal. I’m excited for the rest of the week and to continue research with my team.