What is a biosphere?
Biologists call the Earth's environment and all organisms the Earth's biosphere.
But biosphere is also the name of a man-made and sealed environment, which simulates
the earth's biosphere. This could for example be in a bottle, or a greenhouse. Another
(maybe more correct) name for such an artificial biosphere is ecosphere, or closed ecosystem.
There are many commercial biospheres available on the internet. An example of this is
the picture to the left.
You could of course buy one of these and watch it, but it is much more fun (and cheaper!)
to make your own biosphere. Making a perfect biosphere is very complicated, because the
cycle of nutrients has to be balanced for your biosphere to be stable.
For example: animals breath oxygen and produce CO2, plants produce oxygen (in the sun)
and use CO2. In theory they could keep each other in balance. But there is more: the
nitrogen cycle also has to be balanced. Animals and plants contain amounts of nitrogen.
If they die and are not decomposed, then nitrogen will be removed from the cycle
(because it stays in the dead organisms), and eventually there will not be enough
nitrogen left for the living organisms. These are the two most obvious and important
cycles of nutrients, but there are more, like the cycles of various minerals etc.
Why this website?
On this website I will tell you about my own attempts to make a stable biosphere. Please
note that I have only just started, so there isn't very much to report yet. :)
But as I continue making attemps, this webite will grow...
I will also try to give you some tips when you want to make your own biosphere.
Making your own biosphere
I've written down some hints about making your own biosphere.
Maybe you can find some useful information here. Updated
My own attempts
I am concentrating on aquatic biospheres for the moment, both fresh and salt water.
I have chosen for aquatic biospheres because they are more fun to look at, and I think
they are easier to create, because they have a higher growth/reproduction rate than land
plants/animals.
Experiments
Fresh Water
| Description |
Birth |
Death |
Notes |
| Canal water |
23 October 2001 |
12 November 2002 |
I just filled a bottle with water from a canal... Contained Alga en Cyclops
Updated |
| Pond water |
29 October 2001 |
6 November 2001 |
I filled a bottle with water from a pond, but all the animals died
within days... Possibly poisoned by H2S from rotting material. |
| More water fleas |
3 December 2001 |
2 January 2002 |
Plants and small crustaceans in a 1.5 litres bottle. |
| 7 litres bottle |
16 December 2001 |
Still running |
A big bottle with plants, small crustaceans and alga. Updated |
| 5 litres bottle |
8 September 2002 |
Still running |
A bottle with snails, small crustaceans and alga. No plants. Updated |
Salt Water
| Description |
Birth |
Death |
Notes |
| Brine shrimp |
6 November 2001 |
18 November 2001 |
A failed attempt with salt water and brine shrimp. Most likely a lack of oxygen |
| Algae |
6 November 2001 |
3 December 2001 |
A failed attempt to let algae (from brine shrimp food) grow. |
| Brine shrimp and alga |
7 September 2002 |
3 November 2002 |
A second attempt to grow brine shrimp and alga. |
Links
If you are interested in making your own biospheres, you can also try some of these links:
Yahoo! Groups: Home Made Biospheres
A discussion forum about making your own Biospheres.
Homemade Biospheres A great website about home made biospheres.
I got lots of ideas here.
EcoSpheres Closed Ecosystems A commercial website
Bio-sphere Another commercial website
If you know/have a website on making your own Biospheres, email me and I will
add a link.
You can email me at:
robin_ohm @ hotmail.com (remove spaces)
Last update: Saturday 24 January 2004
You could of course buy one of these and watch it, but it is much more fun (and cheaper!)
to make your own biosphere. Making a perfect biosphere is very complicated, because the
cycle of nutrients has to be balanced for your biosphere to be stable.
For example: animals breath oxygen and produce CO2, plants produce oxygen (in the sun)
and use CO2. In theory they could keep each other in balance. But there is more: the
nitrogen cycle also has to be balanced. Animals and plants contain amounts of nitrogen.
If they die and are not decomposed, then nitrogen will be removed from the cycle
(because it stays in the dead organisms), and eventually there will not be enough
nitrogen left for the living organisms. These are the two most obvious and important
cycles of nutrients, but there are more, like the cycles of various minerals etc.