How wheat and buckwheat respond to drought situations with high CO₂ and high temperatures was investigated in the Department of Plant Biology and Ecology

Drought, high temperatures and high levels of CO₂ resulting from the greenhouse effect are set to jeopardize wheat production. Having analyzed various physiological parameters of the plants, researchers from the Department of Plant Biology and Ecology of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) have confirmed that buckwheat responds better than wheat under these extreme conditions.

The work is published in the journal Environmental and Experimental Botany.

The data are clear: future climate conditions could end up becoming extreme. As in the well-known tale Peter and the Wolf, the data are saying that “the wolf is coming.”

Atmospheric CO₂ has risen exponentially over the last few decades and is set to continue that way for many years to come. As a result of that, the greenhouse effect will intensify; the global temperature could rise by 3°C, thereby increasing water shortages in many parts of the planet as well.

So cereals will have to withstand longer and worse periods of drought in the future, along with high CO₂ levels and temperatures. These conditions harm conventional cereals, such as wheat, and that could jeopardize the access of millions of people worldwide to food.

Unlike the citizens in the tale of Peter and the Wolf, scientists know that climate change is on its way or is already taking place. They do not have an optimistic view in that respect, but they are striving to find remedies for when the “wolf” comes.

In the UPV/EHU’s Department of Plant Biology and Ecology, for example, they are exploring “which alternative cereals may be better able to resist these future conditions,” said the researcher Xabier Simón.

“In the future the use of many conventional cereals (wheat, corn, etc.) may be reduced to be replaced by cereals better able to thrive under the new conditions. There you have, for example, buckwheat, sorghum, spelt, etc. So it is essential to find out the capacity of these species to withstand situations of severe drought, high temperatures and high CO₂ levels.”

Wheat versus buckwheat

In collaboration with Jon Miranda and Usue Pérez, researchers from the FisioKlima-AgroSosT group, Xabier Simón explored the response of wheat and buckwheat to the anticipated future conditions. “We cultivated the plants of these two species in a growth chamber and controlled the conditions of temperatures, CO₂ and drought.”

When analyzing various physiological parameters of the plants, they found that “buckwheat had the potential to be an alternative cereal to wheat. At high CO₂ levels and temperatures, even if there is no drought, certain parameters of wheat were already seen to worsen: the growth of the wheat was restricted whereas that of the buckwheat was not; furthermore, the photosynthesis level of buckwheat increased and that of wheat fell. On the whole, buckwheat was found to respond better than wheat under drought conditions.”

Elon Musk traveled to Indonesia’s resort island of Bali on Sunday to launch Starlink satellite internet service in the world’s largest archipelago nation.

Wearing a green Batik shirt, Musk was greeted with a garland of flower petals at a community health clinic in Denpasar, the provincial capital of Bali, where he launched the Starlink service alongside Indonesian ministers.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 17,000 islands sprawled across three time zones with a population of more than 270 million, has been trying for years to secure deals with Musk’s Tesla on battery investment and for Musk’s SpaceX to provide fast internet for the country’s remote regions.

During the ceremony, Musk took a speed test of the Starlink internet service with several health workers in Indonesia’s remote regions, including in Aru, one of Indonesia’s unserved and outermost islands in Maluku province.

“This can make it really a lifesaver for remote medical clinics, and I think it could be a possibility for education as well,” Musk told reporters.

“If you can access the internet and then you can learn anything and you can also sell your business services worldwide. So, I think it’s going to be incredibly beneficial,” he said.

He also signed an agreement on enhancing connectivity in the country’s health and education sectors. Details about the agreement between the Indonesian government and Musk’s SpaceX, the aerospace company that operates Starlink services, were not provided.

Launching the service at a health clinic aligns with Starlink’s broader mission of providing affordable access to high-speed internet services, particularly in underserved and remote regions, said Coordinating Minister of Maritime and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan.

“Our remote regions need Starlink to expand high-speed internet services, especially to help with problems in the health, education and maritime sectors,” Pandjaitan, a close ally of Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo, told reporters. He held separate talks with Musk on Sunday.

Communication and Informatics Minister Budi Arie Setiadi said earlier that local internet providers, which rely on base transceiver stations to transmit signals, are unable to reach outer islands because they have limited coverage. Starlink’s satellites, which remain in low orbit, will help them deliver faster internet with nationwide coverage.

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said of the more than 10,000 clinics across the country, there are still around 2,700 without internet access.

“The internet can open up better access to health services as communication between regions is said to be easier, so that reporting from health service facilities can be done in real time or up to date,” he said.

During his first in-person visit to Bali, Musk is also scheduled to participate in the 10th World Water Forum, which seeks to address global water and sanitation challenges.

Musk spoke in 2022 at the B-20 business forum ahead of a summit of the Group of 20 leading economies that took place in Bali. He joined the conference by video link weeks after completing his heavily scrutinized takeover of Twitter.

Musk’s visit comes just weeks after Apple CEO Tim Cook met Widodo on April 17 and said the company would “look at” manufacturing in Indonesia. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella visited on April 30 and said the company would invest $1.7 billion over the next four years in new cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure in Indonesia.

Indonesia under Widodo has promoted development of the digital technology and information sectors, aiming to achieve the government’s Golden Indonesia 2045 Vision. The country hopes to become one of the world’s top five economies with a GDP of up to $9 trillion, exactly a century after it won independence from Dutch colonizers.

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Once we travel to another planet, we’ll face the next challenge—how to survive. Emmanuel Mendoza began tackling that problem in his parent’s garage during his senior year of high school.

“I’ve always been interested in human space systems, specifically, how we grow or how humans live in long-term space environments,” said Mendoza, an aerospace engineering student at Texas A&M University.

This interest began with a high-school science project testing if radishes would grow in Martian regolith (simulated Martian soil). Today, he’s upgraded from a garage to the Forensic Laboratory for Investigative Entomological Sciences (FLIES) Facility at Texas A&M, where he experiments with growing pea plants in simulated Martian soil with the help of black soldier flies.

Insects: The astronaut’s best friend

During his freshman year at A&M, Mendoza scrolled through the Aggie Research Program’s website for an undergraduate research opportunity that would allow him to bridge his interests in aerospace engineering and sustainable agriculture. One project caught his eye. Noah Lemke, a Texas A&M graduate student, was researching black soldier flies under the direction of entomology professor Dr. Jeffery Tomberlin.

“Black soldier flies are on the rise due to their ability to break down basically any organic matter—feces, animal waste, organic waste, plant matter—a lot of things that are generally non-useful,” said Mendoza.

As a byproduct of digesting this biomatter, the black soldier fly larvae produce frass, which is essentially insect waste.

“Because of the way their gut works, it is found to be a really good soil supplement, like fertilizer to plants,” said Mendoza. “I saw this and thought, if you can use this for plants, what’s to prevent you from using it with something that doesn’t usually support life?”

Since then, Mendoza has been experimenting with pea plant growth in Martial soil using varying amounts of frass. He potted pea plants in regular and Martian soil and experimented using 0% to 100% frass.

To his surprise, green pods sprouted from the red regolith.

Taking root in red soil

Mendoza found that exceeding anything greater than 50% frass would destroy the plant’s ability to grow but adding 10% frass to the Martian soil was the optimum amount for plant growth.

“This tells us that frass is being used by the soil. It’s also showing us the plants are definitely up-taking something from the soil,” he said. “It definitely shows that the Martian regolith is not so inert that plants will not grow. It’s showing us that there is a certain functionality, a certain usefulness in Martian regolith.”

Even with 0% frass, he saw flowering and pod growth in plants potted entirely in Martian soil.

“That was really interesting. It shows that plants are super resilient. They can learn togreen plants on mars thrive and grow in even the most austere conditions, and that we can do a lot with the things that we already have on hand and species that already exist,” he said. “And we can do a lot to make those environments more favorable.”

Mendoza presented his findings at the 2023 Entomological Society of America Conference in Washington, D.C.

Planning ahead

In addition to being an aerospace engineering major, Mendoza has a double minor in agricultural systems management and mathematics. He hopes that his education and ability to layer his interests will lead him to the forefront of sustainable agriculture—for space and for Earth.

“Looking at long-term work not necessarily space-related, we need to find additional soil supplements to grow things on Earth in order to continue having sustainable agriculture,” said Mendoza.

“We need to have options to grow things in environments that we really haven’t grown them in before, and I think that’s where this comes in because Martian regolith is the hardest. If you can master that, then I think you can work backward and develop good novel farming techniques for growing things on Earth.”

Now, in his second year of experiments, he is focusing on soil analysis and plant mass analysis. With every potted pea plant, he gathers data that intersects agriculture, entomology and aerospace engineering.

“I want to focus on the life support and the food science aspect of supporting astronauts in their field. I want to build a system that demonstrates this is possible in zero gravity,” said Mendoza.

Until he begins building that system, he continues growing plants and gathering data on how fly larvae may be humanity’s golden ticket to survival.