Dr. Mark Nelson has many responsibilities but his main interest and passion in the science world is water! Dr. Nelson has dedicated his life to helping humans use the precious water on Earth that is potable in a responsible way. As human populations grow we need to find ways to conserve precious water resources so that we do not run out and also so that we do not pollute the water to a point where it can no longer be used for drinking and other human needs. Dr. Nelson helps humans to realize that every time we flush the toilet or turn on a faucet precious drinking water is washed down the drain and sent somewhere to be treated. However, this water that humans consider waste is full of nutrients that plants need for food. Instead of giving plants human waste water that contains nutrients they need, we often give them precious drinking water which is not as good. Dr. Nelson has developed a way for humans to build contained and managed wetland systems to treat human sewage called “Wastewater Gardens®”. This is a creative and more sustainable way to treat water for many reasons and acts similar to natural wetland systems.
Dr. Nelson spends a good part of his time designing and building wastewater gardens® in coastal communities and in tropical countries but it is also possible to build them in colder climates. Some of the websites of organizations that Dr. Mark Nelson helps to manage and consult are the Institute of Ecotechnics ( www.ecotechnics.edu) and the Planetary Coral Reef Foundation ( www.pcrf.org, www.biospherefoundation.org).
Some of the communities, individual homes and even hotels in the world where Dr. Nelson has built Wastewater Gardens® are: Mexico , Bali & Sulawesi , Indonesia , West Australia , Spain , Poland , the Bahamas , the Philippines and the United States ( www.wastewatergardens.com).
Before Dr. Nelson traveled around the world building Wastewater Gardens® he was a part of a crew of eight people who closed themselves in a “second Earth” or “Biosphere 2” project in Arizona . Biosphere 2 was an experiment to see if humans could live in a manmade created environment and also learn about how humans can live sustainably with the natural systems of the Earth by using technology and other methods. By using Biosphere 2 as a research project it helped scientist to learn more about what humans need to keep our planetary biosphere, or the Earth’s biosphere, (“Biosphere 1!”) healthy.
If you are interested in seeing a detailed curriculum vitae of Dr. Nelson please click here.
Christopher Bartlett, Nguna-Pele Marine Protected Area Project
Christopher Bartlett is a marine biologist who is dedicated to looking at ways that small communities in Melanesia can look after their precious marine resources so that they can continue to sustain themselves for the future. Melanesia is a region in the Pacific Ocean where small communities live by the sea and depend on resources such as fish to eat everyday. However, most coral reefs are threatened due to increasing human pressure from population growth and more efficient technology to remove resources. Therefore in some places, traditional systems that have worked for a long time cannot cope anymore and the reefs need to be managed by these communities in a different way to ensure they will still be there for their children.
After studying tropical ecology and marine conservation at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad, population and ecological genetics at McGill University in Canada and a BSc in Zoology from the University of Florida, Chris joined the Peace Corps to try and work in the field using his scientific skills. The Peace Corps sent him to an island in Vanuatu called Nguna Island where they needed help looking after their coral reefs and marine resources. He spent nearly three years on this island working with the community and advising them on ways they could help support their marine resources and set up the Nguna-Pele Marine Protected Area (www.marineprotectedarea.com.vu). Part of Chris’s responsibility here was to advise and work with the community and staff on different methods to protect their reefs. Part of his job included setting up conservation areas where nothing was allowed to be removed, monitoring reefs, research, coral mariculture, education, eco-tourism, sea turtle tagging and setting up a rechargeable battery project so used batteries were not thrown into the sea. Since then Chris has also worked in Papua New Guinea for the Wildlife Conservation Society, also monitoring reefs and working with communities to look at how they can manage their reefs. He is presently living in Townsville, Australia so he can continue to study sustainable conservation practices for wildlife and wild lands in developing areas of Melanesia.
If you are interested in seeing a detailed curriculum vitae of Chris Bartlett please click here. (PDF 26KB)
OEDSI Scientist Aleidria Lichau
Aleidria Lichau is the CEO or president of OEDSI and was also an ecological scientist that used to work in the field. Working in the field means that she used to conduct research in the natural environment to find out about different organisms and the impact of human activity on those organisms. The first study that Aleidria did was to look at how changing the PH levels in freshwater affect tiny organisms called zooplankton. These little animals eat tiny green plant materials called phytoplankton. Fish eat zooplankton. When farming methods that used chemicals and heavy fertilizers were introduced to soil, rivers, lakes and streams many people began to notice that fish were disappearing. This was a mystery and Aleidria spent weeks researching the effect s of these chemicals on the balance of lake ecosystems. Through Aleidria’s research with her colleagues she helped to support the research of many other water ecologists in her field that were proving that increasing the levels of nutrients in a lake was not beneficial for aquatic species.
Aleidria left her fresh water studies at Eastern Washington University to conduct and analyze coral reef research in the South Pacific in order to look at why coral reefs were being threatened by human activities. She took with her a water analysis kit to measure changes in sea temperature and the changes of the temperature of sensitive Mangrove forests in the South Pacific. When she returned to the United States after living abroad in the South Pacific and Western Europe Aleidria began to study economic activities, human population growth, and environmental law and education. While she was finishing her studies, she began teaching and came up with ways for her students to carry out biodiversity indexing in their schoolyard. Aleidria no longer carries out scientific research or teaches classes. Instead, she has created an organization to help other teachers to develop ways to carry out projects with their students that will help sustain the environment in a way that is healthy and beneficial for humans and the biodiversity of nature.
OEDSI Scientist Samantha Birch
Samantha Birch is the vice-president of OEDSI and first began working as a research scientist while attending university in England. Spending most of her time in the outdoors, she earned a BSc degree in Geology studying different rocks and landscapes and working to understand how they all formed. In particular, she enjoyed studying volcanoes, earthquakes and plate tectonics. Understanding how the earth has formed enables humans to realize that we are new inhabitants of a planet that has existed for a very long time and that we must respect our home and the resources it provides. After graduating, Samantha traveled to South America where she took part in an expedition to study volcanic activity in Chile. Chile is located within the “Pacific ring of fire” and has some of the most active volcanoes on the planet. Always the adventurer, she then traveled to Australia where she jumped on-board an ocean-going research vessel and sailed around Asia and the Pacific for nearly three years. Whilst on board Samantha studied the health and vitality of coral reefs by observing and recording the impacts that humans have made on reefs . Coral reefs have a very high biodiversity but have become increasingly threatened around the world from human activity and global warming. By collecting information on the health of the reefs, scientists and communities can see what needs to be done to help conserve them.
After her travels visiting communities in Asia and the Pacific were complete, Samantha decided to study how to manage and protect these amazing and threatened marine ecosystems by working with local communities that depend on coral reefs for resources. Her studies took her to Australia where she had the Great Barrier Reef , which is the world’s largest coral reef at over 2000km long, on her doorstep to study. When she wasn’t focused on academics she worked for Reef Check Australia and conducted reef health surveys. From her research and experience in the field, Sam antha believes strongly that it is not only important to study pure science and research methods, but also apply scientific knowledge so it can be used for conservation and management purposes within communities.
