Take the 2-minute tour ×  What is the lowest pressure at which
plants can survive? How the plants behave in a Martian-type
atmosphere? Is there any plant that can survive such atmosphere?
Can a lichen grow at Martian pressure?  share|improve this
question Are you referring to total air pressure or partial
pressures of oxygen and carbon dioxide? –  Larry_Parnell Feb 29
'12 at 13:15 add comment  1 Answer  I like your question!  Low
surface pressure on Mars (averaging 600 Pa or about 1/170 of
Earth's at sea level) is only one difficulty that an organism
would have to contend with. In addition, mean surface
temperatures are ~210 K (-63 C), the surface ultraviolet flux is
extremely high (no ozone layer) and an aridity comparable to the
Atacama desert. On the plus side, a 95% CO2 atmosphere might
promote photosynthesis.  So, higher plants are extremely
unlikely to prosper on Mars. Purely in terms of pressure,
experiments suggest that at 1/10 Earth atmospheric pressure
vascular plant transpiration increases signifi