Microbial Systems Open a New Chapter in Biosphere Research

A New Study from Freie Universität Berlin in Cooperation with the University of Virginia. No 139/2019 from May 21, 2019 In a recent study, biologists from Freie Universität Berlin and the University of Virginia (USA) examine ideas about closed ecological systems and how to further develop them. The goal of the study is to establish concepts that will make it possible to conduct experiments with self-sustaining ecosystems. These closed systems involve, for example, transfers of energy in the form of light but no transfer of matter with the surroundings. The study by Professor Matthias Rillig from Freie Universität Berlin and Professor Janis Antonovics from the University of Virginia appeared in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1904326116 ) and was supported through a Humboldt Research Award and a European Research Council Advanced Grant. The authors used Biosphere-2 as a reference point for their study. The experiment was carried out in the 1990s in Arizona (USA) with the aim of creating a self-sustaining ecosystem completely cut off from the rest of the world.