Threats from climate change and habitat loss have outpaced our ability to protect species in their natural habitats, calling for urgent action, an international team of experts says. The facility could be used to boost genetic diversity in small populations of endangered species, or to clone and create new species in a worst-case extinction scenario.
This could be a way to keep a long-term record of animals we may lose on Earth, scientists suggest. They would be “cryopreserved” to keep them in a usable state.
In fact, creating a repository to protect biological samples from disaster is not a new idea. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault on a remote island in Norway in the Arctic Circle provides frozen storage of seeds to ensure that important food crops can be re-established if they are wiped out by disease or drought. However, recent flooding due to high temperatures has shown that even the Svalbard vault is not immune to the effects of climate collapse.
So scientists led by Mary Hagedorn of the Smithsonian National Zoo and Biology Institute set about thinking about a plan for a storage facility built on the moon’s surface.
It would be useful to be located in areas near the Moon’s poles, which are permanently in shadow, where temperatures are below -196 degrees Celsius, making the facility work like a refrigerator.
Scientists suggest that this would allow long-term storage of biological samples.
Keeping the samples on the Moon also means there would be no need for human intervention, or a constant power source to keep the storage facility cool, which are the main threats to any similar repository on Earth.
Furthermore, the facility will be safe from other risks, such as natural disasters, climate change and geopolitical conflicts.
Initially, the facility could be used to store samples of animal skin containing fibroblasts.
The team has already begun planning how to do this with samples of starry goby fish that will be used as a test.
Scientists point out that there are many challenges that could hinder their plan, including safely transporting the samples through space and to the moon, keeping the fertilizer safe from radiation, and bringing together countries and organizations around the world to build and then protect the facility.
The full details of this plan are published in a research paper in the journal BioScience.
Source: Independent
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2024-08-04 21:05:02
