This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: What, exactly, is a plant made of? Scientists have a good understanding of the essential nutrients plants need to grow.
But what plants need and what they contain are not necessarily the same. As plants draw water and nutrients through their roots, they can also absorb other elements from their surroundings. Those elements become incorporated into plant tissues—meaning what's in the ground can help shape what's in the plant.
That becomes especially important when the ground isn't on Earth. Researchers studying the possibility of growing plants on the moon and Mars want to understand what could happen when their roots encounter regolith, the rocky material rich in metals that covers their surfaces. Growing in a different gravitational environment could also affect what a plant contains—an important consideration if those plants are eventually grown as food.
But understanding those differences first requires a clearer picture of what plants contain here on Earth. "We needed to answer a space question by learning about Earth," said Harrison Coker, a doctoral researcher in the Texas A&M University Department of Soil and Crop Sciences within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Dr. Coker and an international team have now helped establish that baseline.
In a study and global meta-analysis published in ACS Environmental Au, they compiled measurements from 5,474 plant samples across 73 countries, covering 52 elements, 21 climate classes and 26 soil groups. The resulting global database provides a more comprehensive picture of plant elemental composition, including dozens of elements beyond the familiar nutrients typically associated with plant growth. As a NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunity fellow, Coker studies ways to support plant growth on the moon and Mars and has spent the past three summers conducting research at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
That interest connected Coker with an international group of scientists brought together by the Moon Village Association, an organization focused on the exploration and development of the moon led by former students Dr. Borja Barbero and Rachel Rivero. The group began looking for data on the elemental composition of plants grown in simulated lunar and Martian regolith, but found little to work with.
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