Taiwan Today

A transparent ecosphere at the Yilan Green Expo houses 50 different types of organisms that with sunlight can maintain a long-term ecological balance, serving as a lesson to visitors on the importance of the environment. The ecosphere, which weighs roughly 1.5 metric tons, with a diameter of 1.5 meters, allows visitors to peer into the mini-world inside through a 1.2-centimeter thick transparent acrylic cover. It is the result of two months of work by renowned local aquatic plant expert Hsu Chih-hsiung. Tseng Ching-chun, curator of this part of the exposition, said with fish, shrimp, shellfish, insects and a variety of water plants growing in the water, on the bottom, on the surface and sticking out of the water, as long as the ecosphere receives an appropriate amount of light, it is self-sufficient enough to maintain a balanced internal ecological system. The ecosphere is a sealed microcosm of an ecosystem, containing mutually reliant organisms living on food and gases and operating on the theory of a balanced cycle, with sunlight as its only source of power. NASA scientists in the United States were the first to develop related theories and research. Tseng said much attention has been devoted to the earth's deteriorating environment in recent years. He hopes that the ecosphere will enable visitors to get a sense of the interrelations between mankind and the environment, and thus better understand and cherish the only earth we have. (This article originally appeared in “The Liberty Times” March 29, 2010.)