Using a Closed Ecological System to Study Earth's Biosphere Author(s): Mark Nelson, Tony L. Burgess, Abigail Alling, Norberto Alvarez-Romo, William F. Dempster, Roy L. Walford, John P. Allen Source: BioScience, Vol. 43, No. 4 (Apr., 1993), pp. 225-236 Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the American Institute of Biological Sciences Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1312123 . Accessed: 13/08/2011 02:01 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. University of California Press and American Institute of Biological Sciences are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to BioScience. http://www.jstor.org Using a Closed EcologicalSystem to Study Earth's Biosphere Initial results from Biosphere 2 Mark Nelson, Tony L. Burgess,Abigail Ailing, Norberto Alvarez-Romo,William F. Dempster, Roy L. Walford, and John P. Allen T he idea of creatingmaterially ber 1991. Initial results indicate that closed microbiospheres, in- the ecosystems in Biosphere 2 are cludinghumans, to study eco- Syntheticbiospheres maturing rapidly and functioning to logical processeshad its roots in sev- open the prospectfor maintain most introduced species. The eral branches of research. One was humans are healthy and producing the sealed microcosmsand open, but nearly all their nutritional require- mesocosms that comparativebiospherics II i ments from the boundary-defined, I~~~~~i i ~i ~ ~~~~~iii i .