Watermelons Cultivated in Vostok Station
In an astonishing feat of agriculture, scientists have cultivated watermelons in Antarctica.
This is a joint achievement of Russian Antarctic Expedition of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI), Agrophysical Research Institute and the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Since it is seemingly inhospitable for cultivation, scientists have created artificial environment to mimic natural conditions for the growth of plant.
In place of Sun Light, they used specialized lighting arrangement to mimic natural Sun Light. Since natural polinators are absent, they have to manually polinate the seeds.
Korean scientists achieved watermelon cultivation at the King Sejong Station in West Antarctica in 2021.
About Watermelon:
Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) is a flowering plant species of the Cucurbitaceae family and the name of its edible fruit. A scrambling and trailing vine-like plant, it is a highly cultivated fruit worldwide, with more than 1,000 varieties.
Considerable breeding effort has developed disease-resistant varieties. Many cultivars are available that produce mature fruit within 100 days of planting. In 2017, China produced about two-thirds of the world's total of watermelons.
Watermelons dates back to what is now Sudan more than 4,300 years ago.
Watermelons were originally cultivated for their high water content and were stored to be eaten during dry seasons, not only as a food source, but as a method of storing water. Watermelon seeds were found in the Dead Sea region at the ancient settlements of Bab edh-Dhra and Tel Arad.
Many 5000-year-old wild watermelon seeds (C. lanatus) were discovered at Uan Muhuggiag, a prehistoric archaeological site located in southwestern Libya. This archaeobotanical discovery may support the possibility that the plant was more widely distributed in the past.
In the 7th century, watermelons were being cultivated in India, and by the 10th century had reached China. The Moors introduced the fruit into the Iberian Peninsula, and there is evidence of it being cultivated in Córdoba in 961 and also in Seville in 1158. It spread northwards through southern Europe, perhaps limited in its advance by summer temperatures being insufficient for good yields. The fruit had begun appearing in European herbals by 1600, and was widely planted in Europe in the 17th century as a minor garden crop.
About Vostok Station:
Vostok Research Station is around 1,301 kilometres (808 mi) from the Geographic South Pole, at the middle of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet.
Vostok is located near the southern pole of inaccessibility and the south geomagnetic pole, making it one of the optimal places to observe changes in the Earth's magnetosphere. Other studies include actinometry, geophysics, medicine and climatology.
The station is at 3,488 metres (11,444 ft) above sea level and is one of the most isolated established research stations on the Antarctic continent. The station was supplied from Mirny Station on the Antarctic coast. The station normally hosts 30 scientists and engineers in the summer. In winter, their number drops to 15.
The only permanent research station located farther south is the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, operated by the United States at the geographic South Pole. The Chinese Kunlun Station is farther south than Vostok but is occupied only during summers.
Some of the challenges faced by those living on the station were described in Vladimir Sanin's books such as Newbie in the Antarctic (1973), 72 Degrees Below Zero (1975) and others.
This place holds record for lowest temperature ever recored on Earth Surface and it is -89.20C in 21 July 1983.
The near-surface air temperature of -89.20C measured at the Russian Vostok station (78.5S, 106.9E, 3488 m above sea level (asl)) on the plateau of East Antarctica (Figure 1) on 21 July 1983 is acknowledged as the lowest temperature ever recorded at the surface of the Earth.
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