{"id":18903,"date":"2022-10-13T09:00:14","date_gmt":"2022-10-13T07:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/?p=129408"},"modified":"2022-10-13T09:28:12","modified_gmt":"2022-10-13T07:28:12","slug":"a-farm-under-the-sea","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/rss_feed\/a-farm-under-the-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"A farm under the sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Jocelyn Timperley\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 13 October 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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A decade ago, Luca Gamberini\u2019s father, Sergio, decided to pursue what seemed to Luca like a madcap scheme to grow plants under the sea.<\/p>\n

The Gamberini family business, Ocean Reef Group, specialised in diving and scuba equipment. Agriculture was not part of the picture. But after the idea to plant underwater crops emerged from a dinner between Sergio \u2013 who had a passion for gardening, as well as scuba diving \u2013 and a farmer friend of his, he decided to try it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of a bet, a fun joke,\u201d says Gamberini. \u201cAnd my father was like, \u2018hey, you know what, I\u2019m actually going to try that.\u2019 And he did. And it worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

To start, they used small, curved, transparent balloons sunk below the water and filled with air, providing an underwater dome. Initially, the family kept a plant alive underwater, then tried planting a basil seed, which sprouted and grew.<\/p>\n

But Gamberini says he initially couldn\u2019t really see a good reason for it. \u201cI was the number one hater. I opposed this so much,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

He was also opposed to the decision to implement the scheme off the coast of Noli, Italy \u2013 the family\u2019s usual holiday location \u2013 as it would mean that they would always end up working on their holidays, rather than relaxing.<\/p>\n

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Luca Gamberini tends to plants inside one of the biospheres \u00a9 Giacomo d\u2019Orlando<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

But around five years ago, the first time he visited one of the new, larger, rigid underwater domes the family had developed, he found himself changing his mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my first minute in one of these big environments, I was like, \u2018Ah, okay, that\u2019s quite cool,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cThese rigid domes are so much more beautiful, and incredibly easy to attend to. They make much more sense and they make the technology work. So that\u2019s when I jumped from being the number one hater and opposer of the project to actually the number one fan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Nemo\u2019s Garden \u2013 the start-up that emerged from that dinner conversation \u2013 has six domes, each holding around 2,000 litres of air, located at depths of between five and 11 metres.<\/p>\n

To tend to the plants, divers enter the domes from below, their legs still hovering in the water while their upper torsos emerge in the air of the biosphere. When plants are harvested, they are placed in reusable bags or containers, which are sealed and brought to the surface of the sea to be collected.<\/p>\n

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After harvesting, the plants are placed in sealed bags or containers, before being brought to the surface \u00a9 Giacomo d\u2019Orlando<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

The company has grown a huge variety of plants underwater at the site in Italy, from its trademark basil, to other medical and culinary herbs, strawberries, lettuce, tomatoes, beans, quinoa, and even tobacco (for vaccine purposes, Gamberini says).<\/p>\n

Aside from the dome being suited for crops that require a high-humidity environment, the limitations are mainly in size, says Gamberini. \u201cDue to the geometry of the dome, we cannot grow big stuff. We have to grow high-value and highly-requested produce.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plants are grown in a nutrient-rich solution (a method known as \u2018hydroponics\u2019), removing the need for soil. Meanwhile, the domes provide the plants\u2019 water needs by harvesting freshwater from seawater. The domes are slightly hotter than the outside sea temperature, which means that water from the seawater \u2018floor\u2019 evaporates inside the dome and condenses on its curved inside surface as freshwater. This then \u2018rains\u2019 on the plants.<\/p>\n

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Basil starting to grow from the hydroponic cones in one of the biospheres \u00a9 Giacomo d\u2019Orlando<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

This setup also allows an exchange of CO2\u00a0from the ocean inside the dome, adds Gamberini. \u201cWe\u2019ve noticed that this environment doesn\u2019t really need to be replenished that much,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

In many ways, the technology is similar to vertical farming<\/a> systems: it\u2019s a soil-free, controlled and carefully monitored environment, remote from the farmer, with live cameras in every pod. But in the underwater system, the surrounding sea provides an incredibly stable thermal environment for the plants, therefore reducing energy use.<\/p>\n

Read more about plants:<\/strong><\/p>\n