Cold microclimates are basically unrepresented in biosphere2. Maybe they just didn't consider the relatively sparse tundra, alpine meadows, and boreal forests as worth including in their model. Maybe it's prohibitively expensive to produce cold microclimates in the hot climate in which biosphere2 is located.

This is part of why I'm thinking that an optimal site for the kind of hyperdiversity I want to pursue might actually, perhaps paradoxically, be the high cold desert...

At one point, biosphere2 had over 3800 different varieties of plants on 3.14 acres enclosed in glass and sealed away from both the outside world and even the earth below. The history of the project is really interesting and I encourage you to peruse the wikipedia article if you haven't before.

More than a thousand different species of plants per acre is a high bar to meet, but I think I'd like to try, and on a shoestring budget to boot. Just not trying to hermetically seal it should save tons.

@evanarchitective ill be following!

Apparently, biosphere2 had to have these huge domes with massive rubber artificial lungs to regulate the atmospheric pressure inside the closed system so that it wouldn't blow out the windows. An engineering marvel, for sure, but a more open system could use the earth's lungs and be able to devote more space and energy to plant growth.

https://mastodon.social/media/cTD8Qu3poiwRc8AfSMw https://mastodon.social/media/-1k1z-g67FkqoRgWI0M https://mastodon.social/media/36yd-9kRVysM5SzFbsA https://mastodon.social/media/f6ob9PgB2P772DAe_wg

I don't know of another closed system research facility that's as big and elaborate as biosphere2, so it's too bad they're not really doing much closed system research there anymore...

The closest thing they're doing these days is what they call a landscape observation experiment in what was originally the system's agricultural area. They've got these massive sloping steel troughs embedded with sensors and filled with volcanic gravel.

https://mastodon.social/media/Lufgg118JN8Bf1b0ttE https://mastodon.social/media/34hFNMoDleD43wV9AFg

More biosphere2 pics:

An aquaponics setup producing fish and veggies, though they admitted using some amount of commercial fish feed. It seems to me that one could reduce the required feed by using a light to attract insects to the water for the fish to eat...

Some crops growing underneath solar panels, a system termed "agrovoltaics." Many crops thrive in partial shade, so this seems like a good way to stack functions in a limited space.

https://mastodon.social/media/xvh9fNcvsi2gy1RIWgI https://mastodon.social/media/TV0eTugc6eCZsB2T34w

@evanarchitective Growing veggies through hot, dry summers is probably made easier under solar panels. If they were spaced apart you could probably get enough light to the plants that they'd keep growing fast. The panels also catch tons of water that could be used to irrigate. Perty cool!

@kaidub Thinkin a bit more about this.

While the total amount of water from rainfall would be the same, catching it on the panels first would allow it to be redirected to sub-surface irrigation, (maybe ollas,) further reducing evaporative loss.

Also, evapotranspiration from the plants below could cool the panels above, reducing overheating and improving efficiency in yet another way.

@evanarchitective @kaidub nice thread.

@evanarchitective If you were gonna raise the panels up about seven feet (I recall this being about the best height to catch condensation) and then insulate the backs of the panels then there would be a lot more water harvested. I think that condensers are where it's at when it comes to dry climates near coasts or places with a lot of humid air.I imagine that a slightly humid micro-climate could be made around a body of water or a small grove of large trees. Huge nets used near the Atacama to catch fog off the ocean. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdyyw9fe3KI

@evanarchitective Could simply be a biodiversity density thing. Cold climates tend to be more sparsely populated. So a cost/benefit if your goal is to simulate microclimate conservation suggests deferring experiments with cold stuff. Costs tons, fewer data/learnings generated.