Question

A glass dome covering an area of 3.5 acres with 4000 representatives of most ecosystems and eight human beings in order to prepare a prototype of space colony is
A. Glass house
B. Phytotron
C. Biosphere 1
D. Biosphere 2

Answer 1

Hint: Biosphere is a natural system while biosphere 2 is an artificial system developed for research studies. Biosphere 2 has been created to study the ecosystems while all the ecosystems together form the biosphere.

Complete answer:
Glass house
It is also called a greenhouse and it is built to provide protection of small plants for their growth at optimum temperature and other conditions.
Phytotron
It can be defined as an artificial enclosed research greenhouse that is helpful in the study of interactions between plants and environment. Frits Warmolt Went directed the building of the first phytotron at the California Institute of technology in 1949. It has controlled conditions like light, humidity, temperature of water and soil, air and water composition and nutrient content of soil for the growth of the plants.
Biosphere 2
It is an American Earth system science research facility that was constructed between 1987 t0 1991 and is located in Oracle, Arizona at the base of the Santa Catalina Mountains. It is a glass dome covering an area of 3.5 acres with 4000 representatives of most ecosystems and eight human beings in order to prepare a prototype of a space colony. Lifelong learning about earth, teaching, outreach, study of the living systems of Earth and its space in the Universe are some of the aims of this organization. It is an artificial system.
Biosphere
It is also known as the zone of life on earth and is also known as ecosphere. It is a self –regulating system and is defined as the sum of all ecosystems. Organisms interact with the elements of lithosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere and atmospheres in this zone.
So, the correct answer is “Option D”.

Note: Ecosystem is the interaction between living organisms with each other and with their physical environment. It has two components- biotic and abiotic. Many of such ecosystems join to form biospheres.