Assessing soil pollution using an entirely natural method, i.e. by observing the behaviour of certain organisms that populate the soil, namely woodlice: this is the aim of researchers at the University of Milano-Bicocca, who have launched the crowdfunding campaign “Tanti Piccoli Porcellin!” to develop an instrumental prototype to distinguish healthy soil from contaminated soil, combining the behavioural responses of woodlice and the most sophisticated artificial intelligence tools.
Woodlice are the only crustaceans to have colonised dry land since the Lower Carboniferous, between 359.2 and 318.1 million years ago: these ancient animals had to adapt to a new environment by compensating, first and foremost, for dehydration. How? Through a particular gregarious behaviour: woodlice tend to stay together, since this reduces individual animals’ contact surface with the air. Under stress conditions induced by contaminated soil, the group fragments.
“The first step in counteracting the effects of soil pollution is to monitor the state of soil contamination. To do this, we devised a quick, inexpensive and non-invasive method that is also animal-friendly,” explains Lorenzo Federico, project leader and PhD student at the University of Milano-Bicocca’s Department of Environmental and Earth Sciences. “Thanks to crowdfunding, we will develop a better observation method for the gregarious behaviour of woodlice when exposed to soils and measure their responses using algorithms developed within our team. In other words, by studying how woodlice react we will be able to understand whether a soil is polluted or not, and to what extent.”
Specifically, the degree of grouping will be monitored using a device that combines a detector (infrared micro-camera) and a Plexiglas arena, inside which the soil that needs to be monitored and ten woodlice will be placed. It only takes a few hours for the contaminants, if present, to cause easily quantifiable behavioural changes. “Our ultimate goal is to develop a prototype that uses the automatic analysis procedure already patented by Elisabetta Fersini, a lecturer in Computer Science at our university, to quantify the degree of grouping of the woodlice when exposed to contaminated soils,” explains Sara Villa, team member and lecturer in Ecology at Milano-Bicocca University. “This self-study will be useful to reduce the time needed for analysis and drafting an environmental quality report.”
To develop a first experimental prototype, 10,000 euro must be raised through the active fundraising campaign on Ideaginger.it, the crowdfunding platform with the highest success rate in Italy. The “Tanti Piccoli Porcellin!” project – one of the projects for the 6th edition of BiUniCrowd, the University of Milano-Bicocca’s initiative that allows projects from the university community to gain support and visibility from the outside world – has been selected by A2A, which will co-finance the crowdfunding campaign.
Supporting “Tanti Piccoli Porcellin!” is easy: simply log on to the project page and make a donation, choosing your preferred payment method. Rewards for supporters include the opportunity to have an analysis conducted on the soil health of their vegetable garden or orchard.