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Terra Violet Living Lab
Predictions of excessive harmful UV exposure and the uncertainty of whether it will result in biological harm or adaptation, creates the urgency for scientific research.
The Bolivian Andes will act as the living lab, where a mini ozone hole will be opened in order to create an environment with extreme UV levels and test its effects on biodiversity. Architecture through the use of a white box which is an enclosed space that acts like an incubator, can help create a controlled environment for the scientific research. The molecular activity of the living organisms will be studied in order to test if they able to adapt to UV or if UV is a limit to life's adaptation.
I have taken from NASA daily values of the ozone minimum concentration in order to show how it behaves. This shows how the Stratosphere is filtering the UVB and UVC and allows sunlight, which is one of the basic nutrients for plant growth to reach the Earth.
However as the ozone layer gets depleted, harmful UVB reaches the Earth damaging the DNA of living organisms by breaking the bonds so the distorted molecules do not function properly.
The entire area underneath the 8km2 ozone hole will be the living lab for studying the effects of UV.
The injection of sulphate aerosols in the stratosphere will create a small ozone hole allowing an increase in the amount of UV radiation within the study area. After two years, the aerosols will be flushed from the stratosphere by natural air circulation and the hole will close.
