Tales from Biosphere 2

Posted by Wolf Tombe on Aug 15, 2019
Biosphere 2 Linda Leigh
Linda Leigh
 
Linda Leigh was the guest speaker for the Rotary Club of Saddlebrook on August 15, 2019.  Linda was the test subject in a three-week stay in Biosphere 2 before her two year stay with a team of seven other people. She designed the ecosystems in Biosphere 2, working with engineers, architects, and other scientists. 
 
Creating the Biosphere-Ecosystems & Two Years in a Glass Covered Dome
 
Linda Leigh was the test subject in a three-week stay in Biosphere 2 before her two year stay with a team of seven other people. She designed the ecosystems in Biosphere 2, working with engineers, architects, and other scientists.
 
Before anyone could inhabit the Biosphere, a great deal of preparatory work had to be done.  It was during this phase that Ms. Leigh traveled around the world to collect over 2,000 plants intended to “grow oxygen” during the two-year stay in which the eight specialists would be sealed in the Biosphere.  One would think obtaining this number of plants would be a monumental task, which it was.  But this barely scratches the surface of what she had to do.  In addition to the oxygen growing plants, she also had to consider the unique soil each plant needed and the various insects and small animals that would be necessary to ensure the plants' health and pollination for continued growth during the two years humans inhabited the Biosphere.  This effort was further complicated by the fact that Biosphere 2 maintains four distinctly different ecosystems: a mangrove wetland, a rain forest, an ocean with coral reef, and a savanna-like desert environment.
 
As one of the original team members in the Biosphere 2 experiments, Ms. Leigh managed the health, research, and documentation of the ecosystems.  Ms. Leigh was candid about the stress involved in being sealed in a confined environment with seven other people for two years.  As one can imagine, there were group dynamics and tensions among the resident crew.  But that didn’t mean the group couldn’t work together for the common good.  As an example, one morning, the occupants woke to discover that the carbon dioxide levels had risen significantly.  The team had to work together quickly to determine the cause and rectify the problem.  As it turned out, an unattended water hose was left on and soaked a compost pile which intern created the sudden rise in carbon dioxide.  Drying out the compost pile and planting more plants to increase oxygen levels solved the problem.
 
Ms. Leigh and the others were Biosphere Pioneers, and their experiments set world records in closed ecological systems, agricultural production, health improvements with the high nutrient and low caloric diet the crew followed, and insights into the self-organization of complex biological systems and atmospheric dynamics. It’s no exaggeration to say that the Biosphere work may significantly contribute to the planned Mars missions.
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