Amid hanging vines and shirt-soaking tropical humidity, University of Arizona biology professor Scott Saleska and graduate student Joost van Haren study the effects of drought and climate change on rainforest plants.
The research team isn’t deep in the Amazon jungle but instead under the geometric plexiglass ceiling of the Biosphere 2 facility near Oracle. To them, in many ways the simulation is as good as the real thing - even better in others.
  
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"We have as much complexity here as a real forest that we would observe in Brazil," Saleska says.
Working in the facility means Saleska and his students no longer have to make frequent trips to destinations thousands of miles away. It also provides them with a sense of managing Mother Nature.
"It’s invaluable," says Saleska. "Here we can make a drought happen. We have control of the environment and enclosure that is impossible in a real system."
Glinting in the desert sun like a spaceport in a sci-fi film, Biosphere 2, once threatened with bulldozing, is experiencing a revival thanks to a $30 million pledge from UA for research projects over the next 10 years.
For the UA’s College of Science, the world’s largest greenhouse presents a self-contained microcosm of the planet, where faculty and students can study issues such as the effects of global warming on various ecosystems.
"The scalability factor was the lure for the university," says Matt Adamson, education and outreach coordinator. "We’re asking, ‘How can we make use of this structure?’"
The optimism in the air is a far cry from just over a year ago, when there were fears that the Biosphere would be bulldozed. In June 2007, a real estate developer bought the 1,650 surrounding acres for $50 million, planning to build homes and a resort hotel. The following month, UA stepped in with a lease agreement and took over management of the 3.1-acre facility.
When it opened its airtight doors in 1991, funded by Texas millionaire Edward P. Bass, Biosphere 2’s mission was to test whether it would be possible for humans to survive in a self-sustained habitat on another planet. With international fanfare, a crew of eight men and women volunteered to be sealed inside for two years in a simulation of the earth’s ecosystems, including wetlands, the ocean, grasslands, rainforest and desert.
The crew members struggled with a lack of oxygen and food but completed their stay as scheduled. A similar mission the following year had to be cut short after eight months due to a management dispute. Columbia University took over the facility in 1995 but pulled out of its 10-year lease in 2003.
Some considered the project a failure, but others took heart in the fact that the experiments conducted here showed how tiny changes in the environment can affect complex ecosystems.
Fast forward to 2008, where in the savannah ecosystem - scientists refer to it as a biome - UA grad student Henry Adams is three months into an experiment he says will show what could happen to pinon pine trees as a result of global warming and drought.
Groups of trees are potted there, half of them not being watered, and monitored for respiration and photosynthesis in order to determine their threshold of survival during extended periods of drought.
The campus includes housing, a convenient perk that allows Adams to walk over at 3 a.m. to collect data.
"It’s awesome working here," he says. "It’s beautiful and the funding is incredible."
"We want to save that money and make it last," he adds.
The university operates the Biosphere through its College of Science, with two separate divisions under its umbrella. One is B2 Earthscience, a group that oversees the research projects. The other group, the B2 Institute, is a think tank devoted to scientific inquiry on issues such as climate change and space colonization.
Its mission, according to Adamson, is to educate the average person about environmental research.
Biosphere scientists are encouraged to interact with tour groups, answering their questions and discussing the projects they’re working on, many of which are being done in full view of visitors.
"The students learn and practice with the general public," Adamson says. "The goal is bringing science to an accessible level."
Biosphere 2
About 40 miles north of downtown Tucson on State Highway 77 near Oracle
Open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily except Thanksgiving and Christmas
Tour cost: $20 for adults, $10 for seniors, military and AAA members, $13 for children ages 6 to 12, free for those 5 and younger.
Source: Cronkite News Service
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