The Economics of Switchgrass for Biofuel
https://farm-energy.extension.org/the-e … r-biofuel/
The profitable production of switchgrass for biofuel today depends primarily on the price of oil, as well as the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
old 2017 article
Fast-Growing Moss Is Turning Antarctica Green
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/scie … nvironment
15 Unique Plants That Flourish in the Tundra Biome
https://www.treehugger.com/tundra-plants-5193248
From shallow roots to fuzzy stems, these tundra plants have adapted to grow in some pretty extreme conditions.
Arctic Lupine (Lupinus arcticus) , Snow Gentian (Gentiana nivalis) , Labrador Tea Shrub (Ledum groenlandicum) , Purple Mountain Saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia) , Arctic Crocus (Anemone patens) , Pasqueflower (Pulsatilla patens) , Saskatoon Berry (Amelanchier alnifolia) , Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) , Cottongrass (Eriophorum vaginatum) , Arctic Poppy (Papaver radicatum) , Tundra Rose (Dasiphora fruticosa) , Moss Campion (Silene acaulis) , Dwarf Willow (Salix herbacea) , Arctic Willow (Salix arctica) , Arctic Moss (Calliergon giganteum)
Biofuel crops on marginal land could be a win-win
https://www.futurity.org/biofuel-crops- … e-2717252/
New research details how switchgrass, a biofuel crop, can mitigate effects of climate change when grown on marginal land—agricultural land of little value.
For farmers, it may also provide economic returns in these otherwise unproductive spaces.
Lignocellulosic biofuels, which are made from plant biomass, are one of the only current renewable energy sources with potential as a fuel alternative for vehicles. But fossil fuel problems aren’t easily solved by simply planting more biofuel crops such as switchgrass.
old article 2008
Switchgrass: Finally a viable biofuel?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/switchg … l-1.696836
Green Grass of the Farside of the Moon?
Chinese route map for lunar day 50
https://twitter.com/AJ_FI/status/1610254052629090304
China Lunar Rover images
https://finance.sina.com.cn/tech/roll/2 … 8522.shtml
Chang’e-4 was the first ever mission to successfully grow plants on the Moon inside a Biosphere on a Rover.
]]>Invasive seagrass and native upside-down jellyfish are battling for space
https://www.naturetoday.com/intl/en/nat … ?msg=30398
Is Shinto as old as some of the oldest stone and animal and tree religion, they prayer to spirits of Paleolithic religion. Theer was worship of bear bones, Skull cults, people wore feathers or wore deer skin and antlers, some blew air through a bone and made a musical set of tones or notes, perhaps they developed a simple five note scale turned bone and wood and skin into musical instruments, some wise man or woman might have turned grass and flower into a medical cure, Shamanism is another popular explanation, grass and flowers became paint or pigment use, Grasses are monocotyledon herbaceous plants.
Religion and Pagan customs, Bamboo breaks in direction of good fortune in 1,000-yr-old river ritual, Japanese men climbed a bamboo pole erected in a river?
Men clash in fierce bamboo pole battles in northern Japan town ritual
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20 … na/004000c
Cold Cuts: Home-Grown Arctic Food
https://polarconnection.org/arctic-food/
Many grasses are short, but some grasses can grow very tall. Bamboo is a grass that grows very tall. Plants from the grass family can grow in many places and make grasslands. They can also be found in areas that are very cold or very dry.. Poaceae or Gramineae are the "true" grasses. They are a large family of monocot flowering plants. There are about 12,000 species and 780 genera. They are one of most ecologically and economically important of all plant families. Unlike other plants, grasses grow from the bottom, so when animals eat grass they usually do not destroy the part that grows. This is a part of why the plants are successful. Without grass, soil may wash away into rivers (erosion).
Family Lives in the Arctic Circle by Building Cob House in a Solar Geodesic Dome
https://mymodernmet.com/hjertefolger-ar … cob-house/
Placing the 25-foot-high dome around the five-bedroom, two-bathroom home gave the six-person family protection from strong winds and heavy snow loads, as well as cutting down on heating costs. The geodesic dome, which also covers a garden area, gives the family the necessary greenhouse environment to grow much of their food. Apples, cherries, plums, apricots, kiwis, grapes, cucumbers, tomatoes, herbs, squash, and melons are just some of what they can grow in an area that is without sunlight for three months a year.
Zostera marina is a flowering vascular plant species as one of many kinds of seagrass, with this species known primarily by the English name of eelgrass with seawrack much less used, and refers to the plant after breaking loose from the submerged wetland soil, and drifting free with ocean current and waves to a coast seashore. It is a saline soft-sediment submerged plant native to marine environments on the coastlines of northern latitudes from subtropical to subpolar regions of North America and Eurasia. Domestication of poaceous cereal crops such as maize (corn), wheat, millets, and rice are eaten around the world. The Poaceae are the most economically important plant family in modern times, providing forage, building materials (bamboo, thatch) and fuel (ethanol), as well as food. Sugar comes from sugar cane, which is also a plant in the grass family. People have grown grasses as food for farm animals for about 4,000 years. People use bamboo to build houses, fences, furniture and other things. Grass plants can also be used to power engine fuel, to keep in heat and cover roofs, and to weave baskets. Zostera marina sea grass species grows in the Arctic region and endures several months of ice cover per year. It is the only seagrass known from Iceland. It can be found in bays, lagoons, estuaries, on beaches, and in other coastal habitat.
https://web.archive.org/web/20060713232 … es_low.pdf
15 Unique Plants That Flourish in the Tundra Biome
https://www.treehugger.com/tundra-plants-5193248
From shallow roots to fuzzy stems, these tundra plants have adapted to grow in some pretty extreme conditions.
Antarctica's Ancient Mosses—the Toughest Plants on Earth—are Drying and Dying From Climate Change and Ozone Depletion
https://www.newsweek.com/antarcticas-an … te-1138836
Seagrasses have been in decline in Tampa Bay for three years in a row. Here's why
https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/environme … -heres-why
Grasses are found on every continent, including Antarctica. The Antarctic hair grass, Deschampsia antarctica is one of only two plant species native to the western Antarctic Peninsula.
https://web.archive.org/web/20100206221 … l#Famlarge
This post is about a chef who discovered that the seeds of sea grass are packed with nutrition ...
You may have already posted this, and if so, please excuse duplication ...
https://www.theguardian.com/environment … ate-crisis
EnvironmentClimate crisisWildlifeEnergyPollutionGreen light
Seascape: the state of our oceans
PlantsThe rice of the sea: how a tiny grain could change the way humanity eats
Ángel León made his name serving innovative seafood. But then he discovered something in the seagrass that could transform our understanding of the sea itself – as a vast garden
Chef Ángel León holds a strand of Zostera marina, or eelgrass
Chef Ángel León found eelgrass seeds have 50% more protein than rice – and the plant stores carbon far faster than a rainforest. Photograph: Álvaro Fernández Prieto/Aponiente
Seascape: the state of our oceans is supported bytheguardian.org
About this content
Ashifa Kassam in Madrid
@ashifa_k
Fri 9 Apr 2021 01.00 EDT
Growing up in southern Spain, Ángel León paid little attention to the meadows of seagrass that fringed the turquoise waters near his home, their slender blades grazing him as he swam in the Bay of Cádiz.It was only decades later – as he was fast becoming known as one of the country’s most innovative chefs – that he noticed something he had missed in previous encounters with Zostera marina: a clutch of tiny green grains clinging to the base of the eelgrass.
His culinary instincts, honed over years in the kitchen of his restaurant Aponiente, kicked in. Could this marine grain be edible?
Operations At The Canadian Kelp Resources Ltd. Seaweed Farm<br>Canadian Kelp Resources Ltd. workers harvest kelp in the Barkley Sound, British Columbia, Canada, on Monday, May 6, 2019. As of 2014, the global seaweed harvest had an estimated value of US$6.4 billion a year, and commercial production had more than doubled over the previous decade, BCBusiness reports. Photographer: James MacDonald/Bloomberg
Meet the 'star ingredient' changing fortunes in Alaska's waters: seaweedLab tests hinted at its tremendous potential: gluten-free, high in omega-6 and -9 fatty acids, and contains 50% more protein than rice per grain, according to Aponiente’s research. And all of it growing without freshwater or fertiliser.
The find has set the chef, whose restaurant won its third Michelin star in 2017, on a mission to recast the common eelgrass as a potential superfood, albeit one whose singular lifecycle could have far-reaching consequences. “In a world that is three-quarters water, it could fundamentally transform how we see oceans,” says León. “This could be the beginning of a new concept of understanding the sea as a garden.”
It’s a sweeping statement that would raise eyebrows from anyone else. But León, known across Spain as el Chef del Mar (the chef of the sea), has long pushed the boundaries of seafood, fashioning chorizos out of discarded fish parts and serving sea-grown versions of tomatoes and pears at his restaurant near the Bay of Cádiz.
Minuscule grains nestled in a strand of eelgrass.
The tiny grains within the eelgrass. The plant is capable of capturing carbon 35 times faster than tropical rainforests. Photograph: Álvaro Fernández Prieto/Aponiente
“When I started Aponiente 12 years ago, my goal was to open a restaurant that served everything that has no value in the sea,” he says. “The first years were awful because nobody understood why I was serving customers produce that nobody wanted.”Still, he pushed forward with his “cuisine of the unknown seas”. His efforts to bring little-known marine species to the fore were recognised in 2010 with his first Michelin star. By the time the restaurant earned its third star, León had become a fixture on Spain’s gastronomy scene: a trailblazing chef determined to redefine how we treat the sea.
What León and his team refer to as “marine grain” expands on this, in one of his most ambitious projects to date. After stumbling across the grain in 2017, León began looking for any mention of Zostera marina being used as food. He finally found an article from 1973 in the journal Science on how it was an important part of the diet of the Seri, an Indigenous people living on the Gulf of California in Sonora, Mexico, and the only known case of a grain from the sea being used as a human food source.
Next came the question of whether the perennial plant could be cultivated. In the Bay of Cádiz, the once-abundant plant had been reduced to an area of just four sq metres, echoing a decline seen around the world as seagrass meadows reel from increased human activity along coastlines and steadily rising water temperatures.
Working with a team at the University of Cádiz and researchers from the regional government, a pilot project was launched to adapt three small areas across a third of a hectare (0.75 acres) of salt marshes into what León calls a “marine garden”.
It was not until 18 months later – after the plants had produced grains – that León steeled himself for the ultimate test, said Juan Martín, Aponiente’s environmental manager.
a hand holds strands of eelgrass with the sea in the background
Salt marshes near Cádiz were used to create a ‘marine garden’ where the eelgrass seeds could be sown. Photograph: Álvaro Fernández Prieto/Aponiente“Ángel came to me, his tone very serious, and said: ‘Juan, I would like to have some grains because I have no idea how it tastes. Imagine if it doesn’t taste good,’” says Martín. “It’s incredible. He threw himself into it blindly, invested his own money, and he had never even tried this marine grain.”
León put the grain through a battery of recipes, grinding it to make flour for bread and pasta and steeping it in flavours to mimic Spain’s classic rice dishes.
“It’s interesting. When you eat it with the husk, similar to brown rice, it has a hint of the sea at the end,” says León. “But without the husk, you don’t taste the sea.” He found that the grain absorbed flavour well, taking two minutes longer to cook than rice and softening if overcooked.
In the marine garden, León and his team were watching as the plant lived up to its reputation as an architect of ecosystems: transforming the abandoned salt marsh into a flourishing habitat teeming with life, from seahorses to scallops.
The plant’s impact could stretch much further. Capable of capturing carbon 35 times faster than tropical rainforests and described by the WWF as an “incredible tool” in fighting the climate crisis, seagrass absorbs 10% of the ocean’s carbon annually despite covering just 0.2% of the seabed.
News of what León and his team were up to soon began making waves around the world. “When I first heard of it, I was going ‘Wow, this is very interesting,’” says Robert Orth, a professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, who has spent more than six decades studying seagrass. “I don’t know of anyone that has attempted to do what this chef has done.”
We’ve opened a window. It's a new way to feed ourselves
According to Orth, seagrass has been used as insulation for houses, roofing material and even for packing seafood, but never cultivated as food. It is an initiative riddled with challenges. Wild seagrass meadows have been dying off at an alarming rate in recent decades, while few researchers have managed to successfully transplant and grow seagrass, he says.In southern Spain, however, the team’s first marine garden suggests potential average harvests could be about 3.5 tonnes a hectare. While the yield is about a third of what one could achieve with rice, León points to the potential for low-cost and environmentally friendly cultivation. “If nature gifts you with 3,500kg without doing anything – no antibiotics, no fertiliser, just seawater and movement – then we have a project that suggests one can cultivate marine grain.”
a pile of marine grain
A pilot project was successful in cultivating seagrass and obtaining grains that Ángel León then tried in different recipes. Photograph: www.MAPDIGITAL.esThe push is now on to scale up the project, adapting as much as five hectares of salt marshes into areas for cultivating eelgrass. Every success is carefully tracked, in hopes of better understanding the conditions – from water temperature to salinity – that the plant needs to thrive.
While it is likely to be years before the grain becomes a staple at Aponiente, León’s voice rises with excitement as he considers the transformative possibility of Zostera marina’s minuscule, long-overlooked grain – and its reliance on only seawater for irrigation. “In the end, it’s like everything,” he says. “If you respect the areas in the sea where this grain is being grown, it would ensure humans take care of it. It means humans would defend it.”
He and his team envision a global reach for their project, paving the way for people to harness the plant’s potential to boost aquatic ecosystems, feed populations and fight the climate crisis. “We’ve opened a window,” says León. “I believe it’s a new way to feed ourselves.”
The year is 2033. Elon Musk is no longer one of the richest people in the world, having haemorrhaged away his fortune trying to make Twitter profitable. Which, alas, hasn’t worked out too well: only 420 people are left on the platform. Everyone else was banned for not laughing at Musk’s increasingly desperate jokes.
In other news, Pete Davidson is now dating Martha Stewart. Donald Trump is still threatening to run for president. And British tabloids are still churning out 100 articles a day about whether Meghan Markle eating lunch is an outrageous snub to the royal family.
Obviously I have no idea what the world is going to look like in a decade. But here’s one prediction I feel very confident making: without a free and fearless press the future will be bleak. Without independent journalism, democracy is doomed. Without journalists who hold power to account, the future will be entirely shaped by the whims and wants of the 1%.
A lot of the 1% are not big fans of the Guardian, by the way. Donald Trump once praised a Montana congressman who body-slammed a Guardian reporter. Musk, meanwhile, has described the Guardian, as “the most insufferable newspaper on planet Earth.” I’m not sure there is any greater compliment.
I am proud to write for the Guardian. But ethics can be expensive. Not having a paywall means that the Guardian has to regularly ask our readers to chip in. If you are able, please do consider supporting us. Only with your help can we continue to get on Elon Musk’s nerves.
Arwa Mahdawi
Columnist, Guardian US
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]]>A plastic tent is needed above the pond to prevent the ice from subliming. But it need not be pressurised because the atmospheric pressure on Mars is above the partial pressure of ice at 0°C. It is there to prevent evaporation. It could in fact be a layer of polythene laid over the top of the ice. You would need to clean dust off of it occasionally. Maybe a simple robotic vacuum cleaner can do that. The suction achievable on Mars is very weak. But the dust grains are typically tiny.
If you are happy to keep the pond at say 1°C, then a layer of ice is sufficient to keep the water underneath liquid. The water underneath the ice can be slightly warmer than the ice itself, because of the convective boundary layer that will form between the water and solid ice. Heat must cross this layer by conduction. This allows for a temperature gradient between the ice and the bulk water. Keeping the water as cold as possible allows for higher dissolved oxygen concentrations. The pressure in this pond is essentially the weight of the ice layer above. To maintain good transparency, it cannot be too thick. But the lower the pressure is, the lower the dissolved O2 concentration. It all depends on what your plant can tolerate.
The water can be warmed up beyond 1°C, by placing a layer of transparent aerogel between the ice and the water. The problem here is that algae and dirt will need to be cleaned off of the underside of the insulation layer to maintain transparency. Anyone that has owned a fish tank knows how quickly the glass gets greened up with algae. You woukd need a robot to do that. It isn't neccesary in a pure ice cover, because daily temperature fluctuations will cause the ice layer to fluctuate in thickness. Anything stuck to the underside of the ice won't stay there for too long.
Another option would be to heat the pond to say, 10°C and provide a lightly pressurised polytunnel above it, filled with oxygen. The vapour pressure of water at 10°C is about 12mbar. This means a pressure difference of 4-6mbar between the inside and outside of the tent. That is structurally easy. Even polythene without reinforcement can stand up to that.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vapour_ … e_of_water
The pond will develop a natural temperature gradient. Colder and higher pressure water at the bottom will be more oxygenated than the warmer low pressure water at the top. We would need some means of actively oxygenating the water at the bottom, much like in a fish tank. Colder oxygenated water shoukd remain trapped under the warmer layers above it, if the waters are still enough to prevent mixing.
]]>The proposal here is to set up a pond of sea water at a suitable location on Mars. I don't see a need to elevate it to the term "biome".
That is something very different. This is a simple sea water equivalent pond to grow sea grass on Mars.
If I have interpreted the NASA research paper correctly, such a pond can be operated at a number of locations on Mars without pumping the pressure inside the enclosure to elevated levels. I ** think ** all that is needed is enough pressure to keep a plastic dome inflated.
The temperature of the pond water needs to be kept between 0 degrees and 10 degrees Celsius.
There should be NO need to worry about ice .... I appears that Void is discussing ice at great length in the topics he has created.
This topic is NOT about ice .... it is ** your ** topic. Please confirm this topic is NOT about ice.
This topic ** is ** about grass, and specifically about GREEN grass.
Sea grass is green (to the best of my knowledge and subject to correction).
It is time for this forum to move beyond endless words to Real Universe plans that can be realized on Mars in a few years.
A salt water ocean-equivalent sea grass habitat ** should ** be achievable.
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]]>What Biome's are needed on Mars
of course, there is the ice structure and pond coverings of ice ect....
]]>However, Void has recently reminded us (assuming the subject had come up previously in a 20+ year old forum) of "sea" grass.
Void has posted recently in one of his "possibilities" topics.
This topic appears to be focused upon more practical applications of Void's ideas, so I'm hoping you will welcome sea grass to your topic.
I had asked Void about the conditions on Mars that would be favorable for growing sea grass, and if he had any ideas for preventing evaporation of any water on the surface. Void's reply is available for review in another topic. http://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php … 59#p204659
Here, I am hoping members will want to nail down the exact specifications for a surface pond where sea grass might be grown at Mars atmospheric pressure, or just slightly above.
NASA has done a lot of research on Mars (of course) and I have captured a tiny bit of all that work for this topic:
https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/s … st29jun_1m
Global Surveyor topography data. A simple version of the model is the basis for daily martian weather forecasts at the Ames Mars Today web site.
"I used the model to look for regions that meet the minimum requirements for liquid water -- above the triple point and below the boiling point," explained Haberle. "According to the model, the highest surface pressure, 12.4 millibars, occurs at the bottom of the Hellas Basin (a low-lying area created by an ancient asteroid strike). The problem is that the boiling temperature there is only +10 °C. It can't get very hot or the water will boil away."
Evaporation of water in contact with Mars' dry atmosphere is also a problem, says Haberle. "Liquid water can be stable against freezing and stable against boiling, but unstable with respect to evaporation. The situation is analogous to Earth's oceans. Liquid water on the surface does not freeze ... or boil, yet it can evaporate if the atmosphere is not saturated with water vapor. [more information]
"There are 5 five distinct regions where we might sometimes find surface water: in the Amazonis, Chryse and Elysium Planitia, in the Hellas Basin and the Argyre Basin. Together they comprise about 30% of the planet's surface. That's not to say that liquid water really does exist in those places, just that it could."
What I take from the quote above is that a pond might be located in a variety of locations on Mars, where Mars atmospheric pressure is just above the boiling point of water. The water must be kept at a temperature between 0 degrees and 10 degrees Celsius (if I've interpreted the quote correctly).
(Between 32 degrees and 50 degrees Fahrenheit per Google).
The protection for the pond could be a light weight plastic dome held in place by a slight positive pressure of ordinary Mars atmosphere.
The mixture of atoms in the water needs to match Earth oceans where sea grass grows easily.
In his post, Void mentioned perchlorates ... I see no good reason for these to be present in the pond water. The most common salt in Earth sea water is sodium chloride. Thanks to SpaceNut for catching an error in this paragraph.
A small (Earth equivalent) presence of salt would seem appropriate.
I remain interested in any suggestions members may have for planing the mixture of atom types to be present in a sea grass pond on Mars.
If the pond is well planned and well executed, it should be possible to lay sea grass in the water with reasonable expectation of success, despite the reduced light level present on Mars.
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]]>Spitsbergen, an archipelago lying at about 78 degrees north latitude, where the thermometer climbs to an average of 9 degree Celsius.
Between 1984 and 2012, 30% of the tundra in North America became greener, a NASA study has shown. But why some areas of tundra green up more strongly and more quickly than others is probably related to local soil fertility and microclimate.
So plenty of sunshine, water and warm sounds to me like they are going to do this....
]]>Determining why the Arctic is turning ever greener
https://phys.org/news/2022-08-arctic-greener.html
Astronauts might be able to use asteroid soil to grow crops
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/ast … food-space
Life on Mars: creating a Martian food system
https://www.newfoodmagazine.com/article … od-system/
LUNAR OUTPOST
https://naples.floridaweekly.com/articl … r-outpost/
NEARLY 50 YEARS AFTER astronauts last set foot on the moon, NASA is once again leading the human race in its first tottering steps toward the stars. This time, scientists and astronauts are tasked with establishing a permanent off-Earth colony on the moon’s south pole — a way station to Mars and worlds beyond.
China’s Lander Successfully Grew Some Cotton Plants on the Moon. Fruit Flies and Potatoes Didn’t Fare So Well
https://www.technology.org/2019/10/03/c … e-so-well/
When China’s Chang’e-4 spacecraft landed on the lunar far side on January 3rd 2019, it made history. It was the first spacecraft to visit that part of the Moon, and among its payload was a 2.6 kg (5.7 lb) mini-biosphere called the Lunar Micro Ecosystem (LME).