- Years ago when I took corporate executives to Biosphere 2 for transformational rethinking of our planet’s limits, now this astonishing facility has evolved and continues to offer real opportunities. Visitors welcome! - Editor

Biosphere 2’s Second Chapter: Climate Change
Biosphere 2 was sold to an investment company, which, in turn, allowed New York’s Columbia University to manage the property. Under Columbia’s supervision, the focus of the project shifted to the study of how the high concentrations of carbon dioxide inside the structures affected plant life. Biosphere 2, it turned out, was a great laboratory for tracking the effects of climate change on a number of different ecosystems.

“They were able to show that as more carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere, coral reefs are endangered and die off,” said Joaquin Ruiz, dean of the College of Science at the University of Arizona, who now oversees Biosphere 2. Researchers at the University of Arizona have made important findings about the effects of drought on varying species of trees planted inside the biosphere more than two decades ago.

According to Ruiz, Biosphere 2’s initial attempts at creating a fully enclosed system have produced a unique tool to study a similarly enclosed environment: Earth’s. “Because of its scale, there is no other facility like it. It has become one of the best places to study the effects of climate change.”
http://www.sphere.com/2010/01/11/biosphere-2s-second-chapter-climate-change/19312078/?icid=main|search3|dl1|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sphere.com%2F2010%2F01%2F11%2Fbiosphere-2s-second-chapter-climate-change%2F19312078%2F
For more information about the lectures, or for tour prices and hours of operation, call 520-838-6200 or visit the Biosphere 2 website - http://www.b2science.org/.
For an article on how trees respond to drought with increased temperatures inside Biosphere 2- http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-04/uoa-b2e040809.php