Biosfera

Geovanna Rangel
Dr. Croft
AST 101
May 2, 2012
Biosphere 2
For my outside activity, I had the opportunity to visit the Biosphere 2 located twenty-five miles north Oracle on highway 77. I tookthe tour on May 2, 2012 around 11:00 a.m. along with my co-workers who are teachers and the fifth-grade students from the school I work in. Even though it lasted about two hours, we had a wonderful timein this fieldtrip because we had a great tour-guide named Bob who truly explained everything really well. The tour consisted in Bob walking us around the different biomes that are presented at theBiosphere 2. He showed us the rainforest, the ocean, the savannah, and the desert. We had the chance of observing the different plants and vegetation that there is in this place. We saw differentanimals that are living currently inside the biomes. Also, he explained how the Biosphere 2 works; he showed us the machinery and processes they use to make it work. The Biosphere 2 currently has solarpanels, yet they still have to bring electricity into the buildings. Bob explained the Biosphere 2 uses $1500 in electricity per day, so they are trying other ways to use less electricity. Around theplace, there are different building used for different purposes. There is the “lung” as they call it, so the pressure will get out. This place is a huge dome where a disk is located in the center and asthe pressure from the biomes needs to be released this disk goes up and down.
Also, I learned that the Biosphere 2 is owned by the University of Arizona, yet several researchers have made theirexperiments and research in the past such as the University of Columbia among others. The first complete experiment took place in the year 1991, and ended two years later. Eight people including Dr. Roywho was the oldest went inside the rainforest biome, and they had to live there for a period of two years without getting out. They survived with vegetation which was previously grown and with...