Sarah Duddigan

Sarah is currently working for a Global Challenges Research Fund Project on Zero Budget Natural Farming in Andhra Pradesh, India. The project is examining the effects of different soil management techniques in the agricultural sector, and the effects of these techniques on soil biophysical properties. The research consists of 30 community led field experiments spread over 800 km.

Sarah is also working on projects in the Department of Sustainable Land Management, on a research project investigating the efficacy of agricultural reversion of heathlands in Southern England, examining the impacts of artificially imposed pH gradients on soil biogeochemistry, floral and faunal communities.

Sarah was awarded her PhD by the Department of Geography and Environmental Science in 'The fate of carbon from soil amendments in horticultural systems' in collaboration with the Royal Horticultural Society. This included research into the mechanisms governing carbon stabilisation within the soil, and how organic amendments impact on soil chemical, physical and biological properties.

As part of this PhD research, Sarah also founded and coordinated the Tea Bag Index-UK citizen science project, which worked with members of the public, in the UK, measuring decomposition rates in their gardens.