Terrarium closed for 50 years is life's microcosm

<ul> <li> cration date: 2022-03-28 </li> <li> tags: <a href="/tags/life"> #life </a> <a href="/tags/terrarium"> #terrarium </a> <a href="/tags/microcosm"> #microcosm </a> </li> <li> url: https://www.boredpanda.com/sealed-bottle-garden-david-latimer/?utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=organic&amp;utm_campaign=organic </li> <li> related notes: </li> </ul> <p> <img alt="80-Year-Old Man Hasn't Watered This Sealed Bottle Garden Since 1972 And It's Still Alive" src="https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/sealed-bottle-garden-david-latimer-1.jpg" title="80-Year-Old Man Hasn't Watered This Sealed Bottle Garden Since 1972 And It's Still Alive"/> </p> <p> Earth is a relatively closed system, which receives energy from the Sun, but essentially nothing else. Therefore, it should be possible to create such a balanced closed system at a smaller scale. I have seen some for sale on Amazon, in which the premise is that plants generate oxygen needed for bacteria to survive. In turn, the bacteria eat the dead plants and release CO2 needed for photosynthesis. </p> <p> Some of the examples include small mollusks, not just bacteria, and even systems to clean up the glass from the inside. I wonder if there have been more detailed studies on what it takes for the system to survive. How much energy input from sunlight does it need, and whether it's true they are completely isolated, or there's some exchange through the cork. Has anyone brought one of these to the space station, for example? </p>