Does anyone know anything about plants and experimenting with biodomes?

Hey all, this is my first post so I apologize if I'm in the wrong department or anything else. I felt like this was the closest to what I'm after. I'm a Mechanical Engineering student, but I saw some vials today and got this urge to experiment with making a biodome in my spare time (the jar with a self sufficient ecosystem inside). Most of the resources I found were geared more towards the elementary/high school level where the goal was to get kids interested in biology and science, rather than the academics of the issue. In other terms, it's a qualitative experiment and I was kind of hoping for a quantitative one.

So I don't want to just plug and guess with what works

I want to sort of test the limits of plants and species and see the way they react to pressures. So I want to minimize the quantities of things to achieve balance. Imagine a plant grown in a small container - how will it react and what is the minimum size required for photosynthesis? I understand that aspect will take a lot of trial and error, but I want to have the most educated trials I can. I want to run a real amateur experiment, if that's not pretentious to say.

I figured I'd start with a plant, and that's one of the more tricky questions I've come across. Most resources are geared towards gardening, not towards the actual process of photosynthesis. So I wondered if there was an equation or formula to show how much photosynthesis a specific plant performs and requires. Is it based on leaf surface area? The results I've found give the equation, but for a high school level. I want to know how to determine what a dandelion needs to survive, for example. Then I have a way of investigating which plant would pair best with my container and, maybe, how it would endure against the introduction of insects.

My end goal is to have one or more plant, herbivore insect and predatory insect, and maybe a decomposing agent like fungus. At the moment, everything is speculation though. I'm having some trouble forming hypothesis because I don't think I know enough about the topics.

So, I know I asked a lot of questions. That's more of my thought process. I'm not looking for anyone to baby sit me unless it's engaging for them to converse about this idea. What I guess I truly want is for anyone who can point me in a direction to look, maybe with vocabulary i'm misusing (like whether or not this is an environmental question) or books/research on the chemistry and biology of what I'm talking about. I'm an amateur, and not much of a biologist at the moment, but I can read and learn as well as the next person.

If anybody has any suggestions Please, let me know.