By
The Associated Press
ORACLE, Ariz. - A unique ecological laboratory once billed as a miniature version of Earth may become a federal research facility.
U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, who leaves office tomorrow, visited Biosphere 2 briefly yesterday to sign a partnership agreement with Columbia University President George Rupp.
"Columbia's five-year effort to re-engineer the Biosphere 2 Center has created a unique place in the study of the Earth," Richardson said. "This agreement will allow the Energy Department to explore the use of the center for education and earth system science and engineering in areas crucial to our mission."
The two-year research partnership agreement will begin the process that will determine whether the 3-acre, glass-domed terrarium about 35 miles northeast of Tucson is federally designated a "national user facility."
That would mean the center where eight people once remained virtually wholly sealed in for two years would be a place that scientists from throughout the country could use for research.
"It is critically important to the future of the Earth that we better understand and begin to solve the major ecological problems confronting us," Rupp said.
The Energy Department already spent nearly two years checking out Biosphere 2's potential to be such a facility.
Columbia University, which took over operation of Biosphere 2 five years ago following questions about its function, administration and scientific legitimacy, would continue to manage the center built by Texas financier Ed Bass.
However, much of the research would be federally funded, said John Mutter, professor of earth and environmental sciences at Columbia. Mutter also is vice provost for Columbia's Earth Institute.
The designation also would provide a major credibility boost to a facility that opened in 1991 as a private experiment featuring its own small ocean, rain forest, savannah and other typical forms of Earth ecology. Intended to be self-sustaining, it originally was touted as a step toward space colonization.
Researchers who were sealed inside were to grow their own food and recycle water and wastes while the enclosed "climates" and vegetation renewed the sphere's oxygen supply.
Problems required feeding some replacement oxygen in from outside, though the eight remained under virtual seal for the two years. Nonetheless, many viewed the whole affair as a stunt.
"If DOE signs off on it, nothing else needs to be said to the (scientific) community about its viability as a true research instrument," Mutter said. "The Department of Energy would be giving its stamp of recognition that a glass enclosure has been transformed into a fully functional research facility."
The "national user facility" is a step below a national laboratory, such as Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and on a par with the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, which hosts researchers who study high-energy physics and astrophysics.
The Energy Department sponsors 17 major labs and centers, none in Arizona.
Biosphere 2 is already the site of more than 20 research projects, spokesman Mick Jensen said. Most focus on how to cope with increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the greenhouse's coniferous forest, rain forest and ocean environments, he said.
It also serves about 100 students each semester from Columbia and 25 partner colleges and universities.
