Closed Ecological Systems: From the Biosphere to Life Support Systems and Back

Abstract

The paper provides a brief overview of the available facts and ideas about the nature of climate change. Theproblems of ecological research, which are becoming more acute in relation to biosphere research, are considered: this is the problem of data deficit and the problem of the uniqueness of ecosystems. The key difference between the biosphere and natural ecosystems is highlighted, which ensures the long-term, in the ultimate perspective infinite, existence of the biosphere – the existence of a balance of biogen cycles or the closure of the flows of substances. The advantages of laboratory closed ecological systems (CES) as tools for experimental and theoretical study of the biosphere are considered. The contribution of the most well-known CES (BIOS-3, Folsom microcosms, Biosphere-2, micro-CES) to the understanding of biospheric processes is discussed. The problems and paradoxes identified in the mathematical modeling of CESs (Vernadsky-Darwin paradox, limitations of models of rigid metabolism), which are closely related to the well-known ecological paradoxes of May and Hutchinson, are discussed. A flexible metabolism approach is proposed to reduce the severity of these paradoxes. The measures proposed within the framework of so-called “green initiative” are discussed from the position of “biosphere as a CES”. Among these measures are reducing the carbon footprint of pets, migration to electric vehicles and renewable energy sourcesб and carbon sequestration by trees. The seriousness of biosphere-climatic changes problem is emphasized, which cannot be resolved without accounting the closure of substance flows in the biosphere.