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Earthworms to make the Moon fertile, tests in Italy VIDEO

2023-03-30T13:49:28.022Z


Earthworms on the Moon to transform its gray and dusty soil into fertile and cultivable soil: simulations made in Italy and published in the journal Heliyon demonstrate that it is possible, in which the earthworm known as the Californian red worm (Eisenia fetida) (ANSA)


Earthworms on the Moon to transform its gray and dusty soil into fertile and cultivable soil: the simulations made in Italy and published in the magazine Heliyon demonstrate that it is possible, in which the earthworm known as the Californian red worm (Eisenia fetida).

The research was coordinated by the Scuola Sant'Anna of Pisa with the collaboration of the Gran Sasso Science Institute (Gssi).

"The beneficial effects of earthworms on soil promise to make the lunar soil fertile, up to allowing its use for crops in space", write the authors of the research: Cesare Stefanini and Donato Romano, of the BioRobotics Institute of the Scuola Sant' Anne, Chiara Pucciariello.

of the Center for Research in Plant Sciences, and Adriano Di Giovanni of Gssi.



Designed in view of future long-term missions to the Moon, the experimentation was conducted by placing earthworms in soil that simulates lunar regolith, i.e. the set of sediments, dust and stones that make up the uppermost layer of the lunar soil.

“A small group of engineers, entomologists and plant scientists set themselves a major scientific challenge: how to make lunar soil fertile, which is itself more aggressive and hostile to life than terrestrial soil,” says Stefanini. “We were able to demonstrate , first in the world, that a species of earthworm is able to survive on this surface.

It is a first step – she notes – for a possible cultivation on the Moon ”.



The experiment showed that earthworms are able to survive and reproduce in dry soil such as the lunar one.

An ability to adapt probably possible thanks to the particular characteristics of their intestinal bacterial fauna (microbiota) which, if released into the soil, favors the growth of plants and makes them more resistant to environmental stress.



"The results of the research - observes Romano - have shown how the earthworm can adapt to the lunar soil providing a potential biological tool to promote the processes of creation of habitable extraterrestrial soils with a consequent possible increase in the fertility of the lunar regolith, more suitable for hosting plants and therefore man".

The result, the authors of the research point out, "opens up new scenarios on the possibility of future crop growth in space".

The beneficial actions of earthworms, for example, "could be exploited to make the lunar soil fertile and thus produce fresh food for astronauts".

In particular, "the

“Previous studies have shown that plants are able to grow and germinate on lunar regolith, in the presence of nutrients.

However, this substrate is not completely beneficial for the plant because it can induce stressful situations", observes Pucciariello. "What we want to study in the near future - he added - is whether the presence of earthworms inside the lunar regolith can reduce this situation of stress and make this substrate more beneficial for plant growth”.

Source: ansa

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