Scientists Turn Moon-like Soil Fertile for Agriculture

Scientists Turn Moon-like Soil Fertile for Agriculture

科学家们使类似月球的土壤变得适合农业耕种

【原文听力】

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　　By Gregory Stachel

　　19 November 2023

　　If humans are to establish long-term bases on the moon, they will need food resources.

　　In recent years, scientists have been taking steps toward making moon agriculture possible.

　　Researchers in China said this month that they have found a way to turn soil, that is similar to lunar soil, fertile. They found that introducing special bacteria into the soil can increase the amount of phosphorus, an important nutrient for plants.

　　The Chinese scientists grew a plant that it is related to the tobacco plant in a laboratory in China. They used volcanic soil from the Changbai Mountains in Jilin province that is similar to moon soil, which scientists call lunar regolith. They treated the moon-like soil with three different kinds of bacteria. The researchers found that the plants raised in the bacteria-treated soil grew better than plants that grew in moon-like soil without the bacteria.

　　The researchers said the bacteria made the soil more acidic. This permitted phosphate from minerals to dissolve, making the nutrient available to the plants.

　　Researcher Xia Yitong of the China Agricultural University in Beijing was the lead writer of the study published in Communications Biology. Xia said the importance of these findings is that scientists may be able to use the bacteria in lunar regolith to grow crops in future greenhouses on the moon.

　　In a study published last year, researchers in the United States grew a flowering plant called Arabidopsis thaliana in small containers. Each container had a gram of moon soil collected during the NASA missions to the moon more than 50 years ago.

　　Arabidopsis, also called thale cress, is a plant widely used in scientific research. In the earlier study, Arabidopsis did grow, but not as well in soil from the moon as it did in volcanic ash from Earth, which the researchers used for comparative purposes. Their study suggests that soil from the moon could become more fertile with improvements.

　　The new research involved benth, or Nicotiana benthamiana, another plant often used in research.

　　In the most recent study, the scientists said they used volcanic material from the Changbai mountains to create soil with similar chemical and physical properties to lunar regolith.

　　The names of the three bacteria used in the study are: Bacillus mucilaginosus, Bacillus megaterium and Pseudomonas fluorescens. The researchers tested other bacteria as well, but those did not produce the same effects.

　　Xia said carrying food, oxygen, and water to people on the moon would be too costly. Xia added, "A greenhouse for plant cultivation on the moon could greatly reduce the need of Earth-moon transportation."

　　A plant cultivation system on the moon could help meet long-term food and oxygen requirements for humans on the moon, Xia added. Plants produce oxygen from carbon dioxide in the process they use to create energy, called photosynthesis.

　　Xia said other plans to grow food on the moon that do not require soil are more costly because they require materials to be transported from Earth.

　　Xia said his team's study met, "...the same goal [of plant cultivation] with much less consumption of carrying capability" compared to other plans.

　　I'm Gregory Stachel.

　　Will Dunham reported this story for Reuters. Gregory Stachel adapted it for VOA Learning English.

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　　作者：格雷戈里·斯塔切尔，

　　2023年11月19日，

　　如果人类要在月球上建立长期基地，他们将需要食物资源。

　　近年来，科学家们一直在朝着使月球农业成为可能的方向努力。

　　中国的研究人员本月表示，他们找到了一种方法，可以使类似月球土壤的土壤变得肥沃。他们发现，将特殊的细菌引入土壤中可以增加磷的数量，磷是植物的重要营养素。

　　中国的科学家们在实验室中种植了一种与烟草植物相关的植物。他们使用了来自吉林省长白山的火山土壤，这种土壤与月球土壤相似，科学家称之为月壤。他们用三种不同的细菌处理了类似月球的土壤。研究人员发现，在细菌处理过的土壤中生长的植物比在没有细菌的月球土壤中生长的植物更好。

　　研究人员表示，细菌使土壤变得更酸性。这使得矿物质中的磷酸盐溶解，使得植物可以吸收这种营养物质。

　　北京中国农业大学的研究员夏一通是在《通讯生物学》上发表的这项研究的主要作者。夏一通表示，这些发现的重要性在于，科学家们可能能够在月球土壤中使用这些细菌，在未来的月球温室中种植作物。

　　在去年发表的一项研究中，美国的研究人员在小容器中种植了一种叫做拟南芥的开花植物。每个容器中都有一克在50多年前NASA的月球任务中收集的月球土壤。

　　拟南芥，也叫赤霉，是在科学研究中广泛使用的一种植物。在早期的研究中，拟南芥确实生长了，但在月球的土壤中的生长情况不如在地球的火山灰中的生长情况，研究人员用这些火山灰进行了比较。他们的研究表明，通过改良，月球的土壤可能变得更肥沃。

　　新的研究涉及到的是烟草，或者叫做宾汉烟草，这也是一种常用于研究的植物。

　　在最近的研究中，科学家们表示，他们使用了来自长白山的火山物质，创造出了与月壤相似的化学和物理性质的土壤。

　　研究中使用的三种细菌的名称分别是：粘液芽孢杆菌、大芽孢杆菌和荧光假单胞菌。研究人员也测试了其他的细菌，但是它们并没有产生同样的效果。

　　夏一通表示，将食物、氧气和水运送到月球上的人们那里的成本会太高。夏一通补充说，“在月球上建立植物种植的温室可以大大减少地球和月球之间的运输需求。”

　　夏一通补充说，月球上的植物种植系统可以帮助满足在月球上的人类的长期食物和氧气需求。植物在进行光合作用（即产生能量的过程）时，会从二氧化碳中产生氧气。

　　夏一通表示，其他不需要土壤就能在月球上种植食物的计划成本更高，因为它们需要将材料从地球运送过去。

　　夏一通表示，他的团队的研究达到了“与其他计划相比，消耗更少的运载能力的同样的目标（植物种植）”。

　　我是格雷戈里·斯塔切尔。

　　这个故事是由威尔·邓纳姆为路透社报道的，格雷戈里·斯塔切尔为VOA学习英语进行了改编。

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　　这个故事中的词汇

　　dissolve – v. 溶解，与液体混合并成为液体的一部分

　　greenhouse – n. 温室，一种有玻璃墙和玻璃屋顶的建筑或建筑的一部分，用于种植植物

　　mission – n.任务，飞机或航天器执行特定任务的飞行

　　cultivate – v. 种植和照料（植物）

　　consumption – n. 使用，消耗（如燃料）

　　capability – n. 能力，做某事的能力