Sustainable Development Impact:
aRADIAMARS benefits on Agriculture
Introduction
We think it has been made clear that our main inspiration is Mars but we don't want to forget the Earth. That is why we have also thought about possible applications of our project here. We thought about numerous options, but when we participated in BiospainBiospain (an event organized by The Spanish Bioindustry Association) we realized that its foremost application was in agriculture. Concretely, the improvement of agriculture in the regions of the Earth more exposed to UV radiation. It is a fact that the population is growing, and that humans are in need of food. It has also been documented that in places with high UV radiation crops productivity falls. So it could be feasible to use our transgenic plants, which are more resistant to UV radiation, to help those places and solve an urgent and present problem in thousands of people’s lives.
How spacial exploration and space-oriented projects have helped Earth
The same question always comes up when new space-oriented projects are presented to the population: why are so many resources used for it, when we have so many unsolved problems on Earth?. This thought is very spread among society but that is because people are not aware of all the instruments and benefits we have thanks to space exploration. To use some examples, cordless vacuum cleaners were invented to extract samples from the lunar surface. The water purification methods we use to purify water after natural disasters were invented for long-duration journeys on the ISS. Fireproof firefighters' suits were improved after the fire catastrophe on the Apollo I mission. Even something as common as the GPS was invented for space. After this revelation, we hope everyone realizes the utility of space inventions and therefore the impact aRADIAMARS can have.
Thinking on Mars, taking care of Earth
Our implementation can be on Mars, but after all, Earth is our home and it can benefit from our project. We want to help and as other space projects, make a return to Earth.
When we started thinking about aRADIAMARS impact, we thought of different applications: developing textile products resistant to UV radiation, cosmetic products with a higher content in anthocyanins and carotenoids, increase the resistance of medicinal used plants or improve oxygen producer methods based on algae. But when the team assisted to ‘‘Biospain’’ on September 29th we got reaffirmed one of the ideas we had since the beginning, applying aRADIAMARS on agriculture, improving agriculture in the Earth regions with higher exposure to UV radiation. This led us to the question: where on Earth has the highest UV?. After some research, we found a paper published by NIWA (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research) which talked about this topic. Some of the places with a higher UV radiation we can highlight are New Zealand, Peru, or Angola.
To read the full paper access the next link: https://niwa.co.nz/sites/niwa.co.nz/files/import/attachments/Liley_2.pdf
Map representing the places with a higher UV exposure. Credits: NIWA
Once we had identified the regions with a higher UV exposure, we needed to know what effects this extra exposure had on crops. According to a paper published on Springer Link, (Fiscus, E.L., Booker, F.L. Is increased UV-B a threat to crop photosynthesis and productivity?. Photosynth Res 43, 81–92 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00042965) UV-B that reaches Earth is estimated to cause a decrease in crop yields of 20-25%. The increase in UV-B could damage plants; reducing their effectiveness in photosynthesis. Moreover, this harmful exposure to plants can end up altering the natural carbon cycle, according to NASA, which is also worried about UV effects on plants. This plant damage results in a 30% increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, perpetuating the greenhouse effect.
Some experiments have been conducted in these countries about how UV affects plants and for example, an experiment in New Zealand showed how UV-B heavily damaged the quality of their grapes, worsening their skin, size, increasing sugar levels. Access to the full paper: https://niwa.co.nz/sites/niwa.co.nz/files/uz_nz_and_grapes.pdf
New Zealand grape berries are grown under filters that exclude (A) and, transmit UV-B (B). Credits: NIWA.
NASA already investigated how overexposure to UV-B reduces size, productivity, and, quality in many crop plant species that have been studied (among them, many varieties of rice, soybeans, winter wheat, cotton, and corn).
Conclusion and impact on overpopulated countries
All these effects of UV radiation on plants aforementioned could be solved by the biobricks we have developed and characterized. If they were applied to the wide variety of crops affected by UV radiation, they would not suffer a decrease in their yield, the carbon cycle would not be altered and their quality would be the best one, increasing the worldwide quantity of crops and their performance while ensuring their prosperity.
Furthermore, the Earth population keeps increasing, according to the UN, it is expected that, by 2050, the world population will reach a staggering 9.7 billion people (https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/world-population-prospects-2019.html). If this happens, there won't be enough food to feed everyone on the planet, actually, we are suffering from that same problem right now (Pimentel, D. World overpopulation. Environ Dev Sustain 14, 151–152 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-011-9336-2).
To prove the impact our project can have, we will use Angola, one of the countries mentioned before, as an example. In Angola, the problem is not only radiation, by 2050 their population will double (https://www4.unfccc.int/sites/ndcstaging/PublishedDocuments/Angola%20First/NDC%20Angola.pdf), from 31.1 million to 67.9 million people. To make the matter worse 37.6% of children in Angola, under 5 years of age, suffer malnutrition (https://globalnutritionreport.org/resources/nutrition-profiles/africa/middle-africa/angola/). A percentage that is significantly higher than the African average. Interpreting the results we have obtained, we know that plants protected from UV-B radiation through the addition of the Arabidopsis PAP1 gene are better protected from its effects. And as mentioned before, this can cause several benefits to crops. In countries like Angola which suffer from overpopulation and malnutrition, aRADIAMARS could help their society to thrive, promote agriculture-related works, increasing their quantity of food, and therefore, feeding more people.
This is aRADIAMARS, a project developed for Mars, which aims to boost worldwide crops’ effectiveness and prosperity on Earth.
