A strategy of "species-packing" was practiced to ensure that food webs and ecological function could be maintained if some species did not survive. The fog desert area became more chaparral due to condensation from the space frame. The savannah was seasonally active; its biomass was cut and stored by the crew as part of their management of carbon dioxide. Rainforest pioneer species grew rapidly, but trees there and in the savannah suffered from etiolation and weakness caused by lack of stress wood, normally created in response to winds in natural conditions. Corals reproduced in the ocean area and crew helped maintain ocean system health by hand-harvesting algae from the corals, manipulating calcium carbonate and pH levels to prevent the ocean becoming too acidic, and by installing an improved protein skimmer to supplement the algae turf scrubber system originally installed to remove excess nutrients.[16] The mangrove area developed rapidly but with less understory than a typical wetland possibly because of reduced light levels.[17]Biosphere 2 suffered from CO2 levels that "fluctuated wildly" and most of the vertebrate species and all of the pollinating insects died.[18] Insect pests, like cockroaches, boomed. In practice, ants, a companion to one of the tree species (Cecropia) in the Rain Forest, had been introduced. By 1993 the tramp ant species Paratrechina longicornis, local to the area had been unintentionally sealed in and had come to dominate.[19]
The agricultural area of Biosphere 2 was planted a year before closure ...During the first year the eight inhabitants reported continual hunger. During the second year, the crew produced over a ton more food, average caloric intake increased ...
Among the problems and miscalculations encountered in the first mission were overstocked fish dying and clogging filtration systems, ...Many suspected the drop in oxygen was due to microbes in the soil.... The soils were selected to have enough carbon to provide for the plants of the ecosystems to grow from infancy to maturity, a plant mass increase of perhaps 20 tons (18,000 kg). The release rate of that soil carbon as carbon dioxide by respiration of soil microbes was an unknown that the Biosphere 2 experiment was designed to reveal.
Daily fluctuation of carbon dioxide dynamics was typically 600 ppm... there was also a strong seasonal signature to CO2 levels, with wintertime levels as high as 4,000-4,500 ppm and summertime levels near 1,000 ppm.
Living in a submarine; Typhoon/Akula SSBMs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon-class_submarine) actually have a small "garden" room onboard with potted plants and even birds to relieve the crew. As far as I know no other sub tried this though "Taking Earth with us" into the solar system is probably not possible realistically. As noted you need a huge space to get any "biosphere" environment up and running and its not likely to be available (or advisable) to do in space.On the other hand you can google "Crater Cap Colony" (I called it "Colony in a Hole" myself) and see an idea for topping a crater which would in effect give a huge amount of "room" to work in but the engineering is a question.Doing something like a "Biosphere-3" I'd immediately start with something smaller and more manageable rather than bigger and "integrated" really. I'd also start with short closures and ramp my way up rather than try it all in one go. While Bamboo had multiple properties that would be advantageous to have in space, I have yet to hear of any experiments with it. I'd worry that without the gravity of Earth that it won't grow "properly" for most uses envisioned such as structural use.In any case I suspect that actual "life support" bio-systems are going to be required to have high O2/CO2 turn over features like algae bio-reactors to work properly and only "luxury" (high cost) places where you're going to have either the room or support for more "biosphere" like operations.Randy
Perhaps instead of trying to design a biosphere you could copy one?
Seems like the best thing would be to simplify as much as possible, get a few very productive staple crops, optimize waste processing. Minimize the number of interactions to understand.
Quote from: ArbitraryConstant on 05/19/2015 01:29 amSeems like the best thing would be to simplify as much as possible, get a few very productive staple crops, optimize waste processing. Minimize the number of interactions to understand.Simple is fragile.
I think we need to distinguish "biology simple" from "engineering simple". In biology, if you only have one organism in you colony, it is vulnerable to viruses and what-not.
If sufficiently large enclosed pressurized spaces can be built on the Moon or Mars, perhaps in underground lava tubes or caverns, then would it be possible to have them contain biospheres with self-sustaining ecosystems?