PRESS
RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Contact: Deborah Snyder
December
8, 1999
(505) 424-0237
Los
Angeles…A
new book published by Elsevier Science, Biosphere 2: Research Past and
Present, edited by B. Marino (Harvard University) and H.T. Odum
(University of Florida) has just been released which details the extraordinary
scientific findings of Biosphere 2 presented in twenty-two papers.
Articles
in the book have been reprinted from a Special Issue of
Ecological Engineering (Vol. 13/1-4), a peer-reviewed journal which
presents a multidisciplinary approach to practical problems and opportunities
in designing, monitoring, and constructing ecosystems.
·
“This
special issue ... represents the most comprehensive assemblage yet of findings
from Biosphere 2, findings that were subjected to a strong peer-review
process. Topics range from calibrated models that describe the system
metabolism, hydrologic balance, and heat and humidity, to rainforest,
mangrove, ocean and agronomic system development...” (William Mitsch,
Editor-in Chief of the Journal).
·
“...as
a prototype for an experimental ecological facility of the future, the time
for large-scale experimental systems such as Biosphere 2 has come...Biosphere
2 could become a national laboratory, operated for all those studying sciences
of the Earth” (editors Marino and Odum).
·
“The
emergence of eight healthy humans [from the 1991-1993 closure] proves that
artificial biospheres which are based on a high diversity of species and
biomes in a high-tech system can work. These eight individuals had emerged
from a world which they had not polluted...The successful 2-year closure of
Biosphere 2 was an initial, but important, step in combining needs of life,
imperatives of technology, information processing, diversity, microbial
evolution and recycling towards realization of Vernadsky’s noosphere”
(Allen and Nelson).
·
“The
holistic perspective provided by Biosphere 2, so necessary to understand
system level responses within the enclosure, will help shape the emerging
interdisciplinary approach to understanding Earth” (Engel and Odum).
·
“The
overall rate of crop production for the 0.22 ha [approx. one half acre] area…sustained
both crews [Missions 1 and 2]. Overall production rates in Biosphere 2
exceeded those characteristic of fertile agricultural soil in the most
efficient agrarian communities” (Marino
et al.).
In
an earlier paper published in Ecological
Engineering, V 6, pp.7-19 (1996) by Dr. Odum, a preeminent scientist in
Systems Ecology, he writes of the Biosphere 2 experiment:
·
“Tragic
confusion resulted from the many scales with which managers, generalists,
scientists and especially journalists viewed the magnificently innovative
construction and operation of Biosphere 2, in Oracle, Arizona…The
self-organizational process was a beautiful living model with which to study
aspects of the larger earth by comparison.”
·
“The
management process during 1992-1993 using data to develop theory, test it with
simulation, and apply corrective actions was in the best scientific tradition.”
·
“The
original management of Biosphere 2 was regarded by many scientists as
untrained for lack of formal degrees, even though they had engaged in a
preparatory study program for a decade, interacting with international
community of scientists including the Russians involved with closed systems.
The history of science has many examples where people of atypical background
open science in new directions, in this case implementing mesocosm
organization and ecological engineering with fresh hypotheses.”
·
“...
it is time to honor the first team whose originality started the great
experiment of Biosphere 2.”