THE WOODLANDS, TEXAS — According to planetary scientist Abhilash Ramachandran, Martian soil may contain all the necessary nutrients for growing rice, one of the most important foods for humans. However, the plant may require some assistance to survive in the presence of perchlorate, a chemical that can be toxic to plants and has been detected on Mars’ surface (SN: 11/18/20).
Ramachandran and his colleagues conducted an experiment in which they grew rice plants in a Martian soil simulant made of Mojave Desert basalt. They also grew rice in pure potting mix as well as several mixtures of the potting mix and soil simulant. All pots were watered once or twice a day.
The team found that rice plants did grow in the synthetic Mars dirt. However, the plants developed smaller shoots and wispier roots than the plants that sprouted from the potting mix and hybrid soils. They found that even replacing just 25 percent of the simulant with potting mix helped significantly.
The researchers also attempted to grow rice in soil with added perchlorate. They sourced one wild rice variety and two cultivars with a genetic mutation that made them more resilient against environmental stressors like drought, and grew them in Mars-like dirt with and without perchlorate (SN: 9/24/21).
2023-03-17 08:00:00
Link from www.sciencenews.org