3 ms·
Certainly, apart from light and water and gasses, plants may require certain physical soil properties and nutrients, and possibly other lifeforms to thrive.
by 8bitsrule 2y ago
Certainly, apart from light and water and gasses, plants may require certain physical soil properties and nutrients, and possibly other lifeforms to thrive.
- nine_k 2y agoBesides elements that should be present, there are elements that should rather be absent; you don't want to grow potatoes in a soil rich in arsenic or lead. IIRC, most analyzed samples of Moon regolith contain something that plants don't exactly like, but can tolerate. Some selection and / or genetic engineering may be required to produce plants that grow readily on regolith-based soils.
- throwup238 2y ago> possibly other lifeforms to thrive. They certainly require other lifeforms. The vast majority of plants depend on microbes for nitrogen fixation.
- jbotz 2y agoThis is not correct. Most plants get their N from nitrates or ammonia salts, and only some plants (mostly leguminous ones) use a direct symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria to produce these from atmospheric N2. Most of the N in natural ecosystems comes from decay of proteins (from vegetable or animal origin), and in agriculture of course it is added as fertilizer.