Biosphere Two.

This is my research on Biosphere Two, which was mentioned in Out Of Control, chapter Nine.

Construction of Biosphere 2 began in 1987 and ended in 1991. It is as big as 2.5 football fields. It has many Biomes(or habitat areas) in it with a savannah, a rainforest, an ocean, a mangrove swamp, some human habitat, a fog desert, and an agricultural area. In 1991 the first mission began, and the crew were Roy Walford, Jane Poynter,Taber MacCallum, Mark Nelson, Sally Silverstone, Abigail Alling , Mark Van Thillo and Linda Leigh. They had to grow at least 80% of their food. Because they were not used to this way of living, they lost a lot of their weight in the first year. As Keystone Predators (they were at the top of the food chain), it was their responsibility to stop biosphere 2 breaking in it's delicate first period. They had to make sure no species became too voracious and take over, they had to control the Co2 levels by cutting plants and storing the Co2 trapped in them, they had to keep the pH level in the ocean area from getting too high/low,etc. During the first mission, there was a small mystery; why were the oxygen levels falling, without the Co2 levels rising? The answer was that the Co2 and the oxygen were reacting with exposed concrete, forming calcium carbonate. The first mission ended in 1993. There was an ill-fated second mission, starting in March 1994, and ending in the September of the same year, due to financial disagreements. Now, it is under the management of the University of Arizona, and they use it as a climate laboratory. It is also, however, a major tourist attraction.