I'm sure a lot of you have seen this already:
This ecosystem was permanently sealed in 1972. Its only food source is natural sunlight from the outside.
This article indicates that the plant is kept alive by a closed loop of mutual exchanges between the plant and soil bacteria:
- plant depends on photosynthesis for energy, releases oxygen as a waste product. Leaves occasionally drop from the plant, rot, providing food for bacteria in the soil, which absorb oxygen and release carbon dioxide as a waste product. Respiration cycle is contained in a closed system.
- bacteria break down to leaves into soil, freeing up electrons and material which can be used to build back into the plant. So soil enrichment is a closed system.
- plant respiration draws water up from the bottle, expels it through the leaves, where the water condenses on the bottle surface and slides back into the soil. Water cycle is a neatly contained closed system.
What's the life expectancy for a self-contained ecosystem system like this? Can the plant recycle its own nutrients indefinitely? And is it possible for organisms to evolve in this environment, independent from everything on the outside?
This ecosystem was permanently sealed in 1972. Its only food source is natural sunlight from the outside.
This article indicates that the plant is kept alive by a closed loop of mutual exchanges between the plant and soil bacteria:
- plant depends on photosynthesis for energy, releases oxygen as a waste product. Leaves occasionally drop from the plant, rot, providing food for bacteria in the soil, which absorb oxygen and release carbon dioxide as a waste product. Respiration cycle is contained in a closed system.
- bacteria break down to leaves into soil, freeing up electrons and material which can be used to build back into the plant. So soil enrichment is a closed system.
- plant respiration draws water up from the bottle, expels it through the leaves, where the water condenses on the bottle surface and slides back into the soil. Water cycle is a neatly contained closed system.
What's the life expectancy for a self-contained ecosystem system like this? Can the plant recycle its own nutrients indefinitely? And is it possible for organisms to evolve in this environment, independent from everything on the outside?
via JREF Forum http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=267793&goto=newpost
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