Safeguarding Earth's biodiversity by creating a lunar biorepository
Mary Hagedorn, Lynne R Parenti, Robert A Craddock, Pierre Comizzoli, Paula Mabee, Bonnie Meinke, Susan M Wolf, John C Bischof, Rebecca D Sandlin, Shannon N Tessier, Mehmet Toner, Safeguarding Earth's biodiversity by creating a lunar biorepository, BioScience, Volume 74, Issue 8, August 2024, Pages 561–566, https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biae058
Earth's biodiversity is increasingly threatened and at risk. We propose a passive lunar biorepository for long-term storage of prioritized taxa of live cryopreserved samples to safeguard Earth's biodiversity and to support future space exploration and planet terraforming. Our initial focus will be on cryopreserving animal skin samples with fibroblast cells. An exemplar system has been developed using cryopreserved fish fins from the Starry Goby, Asterropteryx semipunctata. Samples will be expanded into fibroblast cells, recryopreserved, and then tested in an Earth-based laboratory for robust packaging and sensitivity to radiation. Two key factors for this biorepository are the needs to reduce damage from radiation and to maintain the samples near –196° Celsius. Certain lunar sites near the poles may meet these criteria. If possible, further testing would occur on the International Space Station prior to storage on the Moon. To secure a positive shared future, this is an open call to participate in this decades-long program.
Biodiversity on Earth is increasingly threatened and at risk (IPCC 2007; https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/ar4_syr_full_report.pdf). Even under the most optimistic models of global climate change, a staggering proportion of Earth's biota will go extinct (Dirzo et al. 2022). Because of myriad anthropogenic drivers, a high proportion of species and ecosystems face destabilization and extinction threats that are accelerating faster than our ability to save these species in their natural environment (Sala et al. 2000, Dirzo et al. 2022). There is an urgent need to envision innovative strategies to conserve Earth's biodiversity to protect ecosystems of the future.
