Biosphere Farm 25 Feet Under The Sea - Nemo’s Garden

Nemo's Garden is an alternative system of agriculture, especially dedicated to those areas where environmental conditions, economical or morphologic reasons make plants growth extremely difficult. Nemo’s Garden Project may be described with three keywords: Eco-friendly: the underwater farm determines very minimal, if none, interaction with the marine environment and related ecosystems, exception made for a positive shelter-like effect.
Self-sustainable: the underwater agriculture represents an alternative solution to the existing methods (sustainability). The use of renewable energy, the resource savings, the fresh water creation and its possible reutilization make Nemo’s Garden a self-sustainable system. Indeed, once the crop system has been activated by using fresh water obtained by desalination of seawater, it continues to sustain itself without any external support.
Ecological: no pollution and no damage in the seawater occur. Inside each underwater farm an efficient ecosystem, composed of dynamically interacting parts including organisms (plants) and non-living components of their environment, is developed. Life processes, interactions, movements of materials and energy through living communities, biodiversity in the context of the marine environment are established.

Nemo’s Garden is located in the Noli’s Bay close to Savona, Italy. The underwater farm, covering a surface of about 100 m2, 100 meters off the shoreline, is composed by 5 air-filled biospheres made by transparent plastic material that are anchored to the bottom of the sea. (The air is periodically refreshed and washed by using diver tank air for safety reasons). Made of acrylic, they hold approximately 2000 liters of air volume and are anchored to the bottom of the sea by 28 chains, floating at different depths (from 6 to 10 meters).

Thanks to the sunlight, which penetrates the inner part of the dome, the interior of each biosphere becomes significantly warmer than the external sea, thus creating stable climatic conditions in which plants can easily grow. Each biosphere has a step grid where the divers may stand to operate. When a diver is in the biosphere 1⁄2 of their body is outside of the water.

In the middle of the biosphere pentagon is the TREE OF THE LIFE, a 3.5 meters high by 3 meters large, metal structure of approximately 1⁄2-ton weight. It is a symbol of evolution and a sign of a momentum towards the future, innovation and technology. The TREE OF THE LIFE conceals the cables going to each biosphere, and controls the illumination for the entire habitat which is supporting 2 webcams, monitoring the area from the top. There are two webcams located in each of the 5 biospheres and one wide angle horizontal webcam at the bottom of the sea.

Each biosphere is equipped with sensors for CO2, O2, humidity, air temperature and illumination. The external water temperature is checked in the shallower and deeper biospheres. A Gyroscope is checking the stability of each one. It is informing the surface that all anchors are properly working and registering any movement.

COMMUNICATION:

There is a wireless underwater communication network with a 100 meters range of operation from the TREE of THE LIFE. All divers with ultrasonic communication units may communicate with each other and also to the surface. When divers start the activity in the biosphere they can communicate with the surface thanks to the full duplex intercom communication system (located in each biosphere).

CONTROL TOWER:

Built on the shoreline, this facility is supervising the activity in the Nemo’s Garden. The Control Tower’s equipped with an ultrasonic surface communication system, to stay constantly in contact with divers operating underwater. Thanks to the full duplex intercom communication system the communication is available also when the divers get inside the biospheres. Equipped with 3 monitors and a laptop, from the TC is also possible to keep an eye on the underwater habitat, checking out the conditions 24/7.

Thanks to this facility is possible to transmit all the images live (through Ustream) and to make a Skype conference call, connecting the underwater habitat to the rest of the World.

All the data and images are stored and also shared through our website. Because of this, researchers can monitor the Nemo’s Garden activity.

HYDROPONIC CULTURE IN THE BIOSPHERE:

The vegetable cultivation is mainly managed by a hydroponic system. A spiral tube of approximately 10 meters is installed into the dome which has holes every 15 cm where a plastic cone is supporting Grodan; these are the seedbeds.

Music: Bottom of the Sea by Dhruva Aliman
Amazon- https://amzn.to/3dgKA52
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/dhruva-aliman/363563637
https://dhruvaaliman.bandcamp.com/album/hard-to-get-along
http://www.dhruvaaliman.com/
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/artist/5XiFCr9iBKE6Cupltgnlet