Why did the biodome ecosystem collapse?

Students examine the case of a failed biodome, an enclosed ecosystem that was meant to be self-sustaining but which ran into problems. In the role of ecologists, students discover how all the organisms in an ecosystem get the resources they need to release energy. Carbon cycles through an ecosystem due to organisms’ production and use of energy storage molecules. Students build an understanding of this cycling—including the role of photosynthesis—as they solve the mystery of the biodome collapse.