Could MOSS Grow on MARS?...CO2 Toxicity! ☣️

An error in my presentation: Carbon dioxide toxicity to plants begins at 1% CO2. This is around 100x less than the huge 95% found on Mars.
An example of recent videos suggesting moss could grow on Mars:
• Video
Here's the paper from China that's started the Mars / Moss discussion:
www.cell.com/t...
I think a very high altitude moss like Indusiella might have a better chance of survival on Mars than S. caninervis:
scholar.google...

[@AKAKiddo]

This is the kind of thinking we need. See if we can seed other planets with organisms other than humans. Organisms that are more adaptable, more resilient, and less stupid.

[@newbotany]

Excellent point. I would send a rocket full of seeds and spores to cover Mars. Lots of different kinds, then we could what happens... If there was a green colour developing, we might be able to see it from earth. Thanks for watching!

[@MuonRay]

I think the authors of this kind research are trying to demonstrate that such mosses could in fact withstand the Martian conditions, not grow in them. In some research, though by no means all, they do make it clear that the mosses do not actively grow in the conditions and do go into a dormancy, but then do grow if, and only if, the favorable conditions returned allowing the moss to revive itself. I think this is the point more than what is being pointed to by people who have just taken the fact that the moss can withstand conditions in a state of dormancy and have said "oh well therefore the moss can grow on Mars". Enduring in a dormant state and actively growing are major differences where life is concerned, with any organism failing to grow eventually dying no matter how long it can stay dormant. The fact such organisms do go dormant in such conditions in the first place tells us more about how really inhospitable Mars will be to Earth life; even the most hardiest of organisms will go dormant pretty much as long as they can do in what are considered the normal conditions there. Observing any change to that independent of restoring Earth conditions is the more interesting next step and as with tardigrades it has not been demonstrated.

[@newbotany]

Thanks for your excellent and interesting comment. In addition to only being able to "survive" on Mars, and not grow, I can confirm that Syntrichia mosses in fact grow only slowly on earth, crusts my take years to develop and being tiny they will not be able to add much O2 to the atmosphere. Personally I'm more interested in using vascular plants that could possibly both survive AND grow if the precise seeding location and method is selected. I have ideas on this and will make a video over the next couple of weeks

[@maihangstrawberry]

Very nice ! 😊💚💚💚💚💚💚💚

[@newbotany]

Thanks for watching Mai! Have a great Sunday and new week! 🔴🌎😎

[@maihangstrawberry]

@@newbotany You too . Thank you . 😊

[@Tjalve70]

Is the CO2 toxicity based on the percentage of the atmosphere, or on the partial pressure of the gas? Even though Mars has 95% CO2, it is only 15 times higher than the CO2 partial pressure on Earth. So what could be done to test that, is to try to grow this moss in a vacuum chamber, where the CO2 level is 5%, but the pressure is 100 mb. There should of course be sufficient water there as well, to make sure the moss doesn't dry out.

[@newbotany]

That's right, thanks for the comment. The moss is very resistant to the effects of dessication but there is water in larger amounts at the planet's poles

[@ZiggySearchfieldCactus]

Cor, that much CO2 and no greenhouse effect 🤔 Reckon Tardigrades would give it a go 😁😁🌿🌿

[@newbotany]

The problem with Mars is the very thin atmosphere and high UV. Tardigrades might survive if they had moss to eat. The most likely candidate for a moss to survive on Mars would be a high altitude moss like Indusiella... There's a very recent paper on this: scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?as_ylo=2024&q=moss+high+altitudes&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5#d=gs_qabs&t=1720329938363&u=%23p%3DqEMd32zM5N0J Thanks for watching, Ziggy! 👍😎

[@ZiggySearchfieldCactus]

@@newbotany It's a god awful small affair 😁😁🌿🌿

[@newbotany]

Yep. I would try with vascular plants like these found growing at 6km altitude: www.newscientist.com/article/2114856-worlds-highest-plants-discovered-growing-6km-above-sea-level/

[@paulristow3454]

Moss, lichens and tardigrades!

[@newbotany]

Thanks for watching!

[@Nabraska49]

Not sure what you were aiming at there .. but the earth went from anaerobic to an oxygen atmosphere.. but if you putting in a plug for the global warming cow fart hoax… you would think that the planet would be warmer with all that co2.

[@newbotany]

The percentage CO2 on Mars is very high, though the atmosphere is very thin at 6.5 mbar. I think the very low pressure and high CO2 would make it difficult for any earth organism to adapt to. And the whole of our troposphere up to about 12 miles has a fairly constant composition. In terraforming Mars, plants have to grow and multiply over the long term, not just survive. That's not enough. Many thanks for your comment!

[@skynet5828]

The martian atmosphere is too thin and lacks other important greenhouse gases like water vapor and methane.

[@ArturoTorras]

There are too many other factors of soil chemistry, alone. it would be a good experiment, though

[@newbotany]

I would like to try growing hardy bamboos at the poles. Anything's worth a try!