Romano Donato, Di Giovanni Adriano, Pucciariello Chiara, Stefanini Cesare
The BioRobotics Institute, Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, Pontedera, 56025, Pisa, Italy.
Department of Excellence in Robotics and AI, Sant'Anna, School of Advanced Studies, 56127, Pisa, Italy.
Heliyon. 2023 Mar 20;9(3):e14683. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14683. eCollection 2023 Mar.
The earthworms beneficial effects on soils may be promising to improve lunar soil fertility, enabling the use of local substrates for space farming. Herein, we investigated the effects of the lunar regolith simulant (LHS-1) at different concentrations in cow manure mixtures on the survival and fitness of . During 14 and 60-day experiments, although showed an increased mortality with LHS-1 alone, most of the population survived. More numerous tunnels were observed when exposed to the higher concentrations of LHS-1 (poor in nutrients for earthworms). This may be related to an increased mobility for food search. The cocoons production was not affected by different substrate treatments, except for the highest concentration of LHS-1. No effects of different LHS-1 concentrations on the amount of ingested substrate were recorded. This study shows that can potentially colonize lunar regolith representing a future valuable biological tool for supporting crops growth on the Moon.
蚯蚓对土壤的有益影响可能有望提高月球土壤肥力，从而能够利用当地基质进行太空种植。在此，我们研究了不同浓度的月球模拟土壤（LHS-1）与牛粪混合后对蚯蚓生存和健康状况的影响。在14天和60天的实验中，虽然单独使用LHS-1时蚯蚓死亡率有所增加，但大多数蚯蚓种群存活了下来。当暴露于较高浓度的LHS-1（对蚯蚓来说营养贫瘠）时，观察到更多的洞穴。这可能与为寻找食物而增加的移动性有关。除了最高浓度的LHS-1外，不同基质处理对茧的产生没有影响。未记录到不同浓度的LHS-1对摄入基质量的影响。这项研究表明，蚯蚓有可能在月球模拟土壤中定殖，这代表了未来支持月球上作物生长的一种有价值的生物工具。
