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After an extensive search for the right program, Blessing Aleladia (MS ’24) decided to attend Loyola University Chicago’s School of Environmental Sustainability (SES)—but it meant traveling 6,000 miles from her home in southern Nigeria. She made the long trip to Chicago, confident that the master’s degree program in SES would help her advance environmental restoration and sustainable agriculture initiatives in the Niger River delta.
Blessing, who prefers to go by her first name, earned her undergraduate degree in soil science from the University of Benin in Edo State, Nigeria. She learned about pollution in the Niger delta wetlands and became interested in bioremediation—the use of microbes and other living organisms in ecological restoration. For her thesis project, Blessing conducted an experiment using fungi and microbes to enhance soil health and improve plant growth.
“This project was the bedrock of my interest in investigating how we can use things from nature to repair the environment,” she says.
Her interests in bioremediation and wetland environments made Blessing a perfect fit for Team Typha, a research group developing strategies to restore biodiverse wetlands in the Great Lakes region.
Blessing explained that pollution is a critical issue in the wetlands of the Niger delta, which stretches across nine states in southern Nigeria. The region is ecologically rich and deeply significant to local populations. However, since the 1940s, multinational companies have extracted oil in the petroleum-rich region, causing substantial environmental degradation. Crude oil spills have contaminated soil and water with hazardous chemicals and heavy metals. The pollution harms ecosystems, damages fisheries and croplands, and endangers human health.
Pollution is also a challenge in wetland ecosystems in the American Midwest. Team Typha aims to develop methods of decontaminating soil and water while simultaneously combating invasive wetland plants. The team’s current research focuses on Typha × glauca, a highly invasive hybrid cattail that outcompetes native plants, reducing biodiversity and damaging wildlife habitats.
This project was the bedrock of my interest in investigating how we can use things from nature to repair the environment.
— Blessing Aleladia (MS ’24)
During her first summer at SES, Blessing got hands-on experience with field research while participating in Team Typha’s projects in northern Michigan. The researchers are mowing dense Typha stands and baking the harvested plant matter to create a charcoal-like substance called biochar. It bonds with heavy metals and other harmful pollutants, pulling the contaminants out of the water, trapping them in place, and preventing plants and animals from absorbing them. Team Typha plans to apply the biochar to wetlands to test its ability to improve water quality and promote the growth of native plants.
The research team is also studying how biochar could address roadway contamination. Runoff from busy roadways pollutes the surrounding environment with road salt, nutrient loading, and heavy metals. With a grant from the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, Team Typha is developing strategies to mitigate the environmental impacts, focusing mainly on road salt. Blessing’s graduate research builds on these efforts, with a focus on contaminants also found in the Niger delta wetlands.
“My experiment is about exploring the potential of using biochar derived from invasive plants to absorb heavy metals from road runoff,” she says. “There’s a problem of heavy metals here, but there’s a larger problem of heavy metals in the wetlands of Nigeria. So my research puts me in a position to gain knowledge about how to remove the heavy metals here and take it back to be able to make an impact in Nigeria.”
During the 2023–2024 academic year, Blessing conducted a 16-week greenhouse study using large buckets as simulated wetlands. Each bucket contained soil, water, and live wetland plants. She added the heavy metals arsenic, chromium, and lead to each bucket and then treated the buckets with various quantities of biochar made from three invasive plants. She plans to conduct chemical analyses to determine how effectively the biochar absorbs the toxic heavy metals and compare samples to determine the optimal application rate to address contamination.
In addition to addressing environmental problems in Nigeria, Blessing aims to transfer environmental science knowledge between Nigeria and the United States. She mentors undergraduate students at the University of Benin in Nigeria, introducing them to new ideas to support their studies. In 2019, she founded a group called Agrofella that offers soil health surveys and education on soil preservation for subsistence farmers in Edo State, Nigeria. The group is developing environmental restoration projects in the Niger delta wetlands.
After completing her master’s degree, Blessing plans to work in restoration ecology to gain more hands-on experience before pursuing a PhD. In the long term, she plans to return to Nigeria to continue her journey as a member of a global network of environmental scientists collaborating across borders to make a positive difference in the world.
“My journey at Loyola has been truly transformative, influencing my academic pursuits and personal growth,” she says. “I am deeply grateful for my adviser and thesis committee, as well as my lab group on Team Typha. Their support has been invaluable, and I couldn’t have asked for a better school for my graduate program.”
Read more stories from the School of Environmental Sustainability.
