Located in the waters of Noli, on the Italian Riviera, is an underwater
oddity. Nine biospheres hover in the shallow depths, with an eerie blue glow
evoking imagery of alien settlements. But, rather than extraterrestrial life,
these biospheres house a research project providing underwater sanctuaries for
growing plants, fruit and vegetables, known as Nemo’s
Garden.
“When I first had the opportunity to dive underwater and see Nemo’s Garden’s
biospheres, I felt like I was on another planet,” said Giacomo
d'Orlando, a photojournalist who spent several
months documenting the project. “It was amazing to see what human beings can
achieve. Nemo’s Garden has changed my perspective [of possibility], pushing me
to pursue more projects involving marine and coastal environments.”
The project started with an idea: Is it possible to grow food in underwater
greenhouses? This concept was conceived by Sergio
Gamberini — a chemical
engineer and the president of the Ocean Reef
Group, a US-Italian company specializing in scuba
diving equipment — who now runs the research project.
Founded in 2012, the Nemo’s Garden project aims to explore the possibilities of
novel agriculture, test the viability of underwater greenhouses and offer a
sustainable way to grow food. This process of underwater cultivation is
particularly important in the face of climate change, which is already adversely
affecting and reducing arable land on a global
scale.
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“We have created Nemo’s Garden to provide an alternative way for agriculture,
especially in the parts of the world without arable land and fresh water. With
our technology, we can provide people with the tools to grow food and collect
food in a completely self-sustained way,” Federico
Giunto, in charge of
marketing for Ocean Reef and Nemo’s Garden, told Sustainable Brands®.
Positioned around 10-12 meters under the ocean surface, the biospheres are
tended to by a group of scuba divers. Each dome is filled with approximately
2,000 liters of air and sits close enough to the water's surface so that
sunlight can naturally penetrate them, providing both light and warmth to the
plants.
Shaped like optical lenses, the lightweight, plastic domes are designed to
float. Once installed underwater, they are guided into position, flipped
right-side up and chained to the ocean floor. The divers then pump in air from
scuba tanks, displacing the water in the domes and enabling the domes to float.
The domes can then be equipped with the necessary technology and supplies, which
are brought in waterproof boxes.
The domes are equipped with hydroponic technology, plant seeds and
air-circulating fans, which are all powered by solar panels. Growing plants this
way eliminates the need for soil, which is replaced with an inert substrate that
supplies the plants with the necessary nutrients. Outside the domes, the
temperature remains fairly consistent throughout the day and night — a valuable
asset for sustainable growth.
“The domes provide a closed system for the plants. There are no parasites or
insects; so we’ve eliminated the need for pesticides, and the plants are
irrigated with water that is actually collected from inside the domes — from the
condensed water in the inner part of the biosphere,” Giunto explains.
This closed system has a multitude of benefits: Nemo’s Garden produce is 100%
organic, since pesticides and insects are eradicated from the dome; and,
research conducted by Pisa
University
found that basil grown in the domes has a higher concentration of essential
oils, antioxidants and polyphenols. The plants in the dome reportedly also
possess purer, more intense flavors. These benefits suggest multiple
applicational uses for the research; one biosphere is currently being rented out
for experiments and tests.
Image credit: Nemo's Garden
“Sustainability is very important to us; we’re constantly thinking of ways we
can be sustainable and use the ocean's energy without impacting the environment
and only having positive impacts,” Giunto says. “We are even collecting the
algae that grows on the chains of the domes to see if we can use the nutrients
to feed the plants.”
The garden has also been found to improve the surrounding marine ecosystem,
acting as an artificial
reef
to house an array of marine life.
“We set up the pilot project near Genova, where the marine life was very
low. Once we set up the project, we saw an incredible explosion of marine life,
sea horses, cuttlefish, octopuses — thousands of things,” Giunto exclaims.
For now, Nemo’s Garden is being used solely for research, due to limitations
around economies of scale. But the research team partnered with technology
company Siemens and consulting firm
TekSea in the hopes of promoting the scalability of
the project. The long-term goal is to make this technology accessible and
affordable in areas where climate change and unsustainable, conventional ag
practices
will have the greatest impact.
“Climate change is the most important topic of our recent time,” d'Orlando says.
“It's a problem without boundaries; and that interests all of us without any
exception. It is the issue that unifies people towards a common goal: to protect
our home.”
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Scarlett Buckley is a London-based freelance sustainability writer with an MSc in Creative Arts & Mental Health.
Published Feb 28, 2023 1pm EST / 10am PST / 6pm GMT / 7pm CET