Ecosphere (aquarium)

The EcoSphere and "Original Ecosphere" are trademark names for sealed blown-glass miniature aquaria produced by Ecosphere Associates, Inc., of Tucson, Arizona, United States. Spherical or ovoid, the aquaria range from roughly baseball-size to soccer-ball-size. They are sold worldwide as scientific novelties and decorative objects.

The EcoSphere's main visual appeal is provided by tiny red-pink shrimp, Halocaridina rubra, between 1/4 and 3/8 inch (or approximately a centimeter) in length. The shrimp swim energetically around the aquarium, eat the brown bacterial and algal scum on the glass, consume the filamentous green algae which sometimes forms a globular pillow in the water, and perch on a fragment of soft coral.

The main conceptual interest of these objects lies in the fact that they are materially closed ecological systems which are self-sustaining over a period of years. At room temperature, and with only low inputs of light, the algae produce oxygen which supports the shrimp and bacteria. Bacteria break down the shrimps' wastes. The breakdown products provide nutrients to the algae and bacteria upon which the shrimp feed. The manufacturer states that shrimp live in the EcoSphere for an average of 2 to 3 years, and are known to live over 10 years.

A magnetic scrubber is enclosed in each EcoSphere. By passing another magnet over the outside of the glass, the owner can manipulate the scrubber to clean the inside of the EcoSphere.

Research on closed ecosystems was initiated by Vladimir Vernadsky's 1926 book "The Biosphere" and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in the 1950s and 1960s in Russia, culminating in the manned closed BIOS-3 facility, a 315 cubic meter habitat located at the Institute of Biophysics, Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. Frieda Taub reviewed work from 1953 to 1974. Another pioneer was Clair Folsom of the University of Washington in the 1960s. On July 15, 1982, Joe Hanson of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA held a workshop on “Closed Ecosystems.” In 1983 Loren Acker, President of Engineering and Research Associates, Inc. obtained a NASA Spin-Off Technology license for the EcoSphere and with Daniel Harmony, in 1984 put the EcoSphere into full production.

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