Sarah Duddigan
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0118 378 8970
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Research Assistant
- Research and Teaching Fellow split between Department of Geography and Environmental Science and Department of Sustainable Land Management
- Researcher for GCRF Project in 'Zero Budget Natural Farming' and RECARE project in heathland restoration
- Sessional lecturer in environmental science
Areas of interest
- Application of organic matter amendments and impacts on soil health.
- Soil organic matter stabilisation and decomposition.
- Agriculture reversion to heathland - impacts on soil characteristics and function.
- Citizen science and community/stakeholder engagement.
Research centres and groups
- Environmental Science Research Division
- Soil Research Centre
- Centre for Agri-Environmental Research
Background
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.
Publications
- Duddigan, S. , Shaw, L. , Alexander, P. , Collins, C. (2022) Effects of application of horticultural soil amendments on decomposition, quantity, stabilisation and quality of soil carbon. Scientific Reports , 12 ISSN: 2045-2322 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-22451-2
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Duddigan, S.
,
Collins, C.
,
Hussain, Z.
,
Osbahr, H.
ORCID: 0000-0002-0130-2313
,
Shaw, L.
,
Sinclair, F.
,
Sizmur, T.
ORCID: 0000-0001-9835-7195
,
Thallam, V.
,
Winowiecki, L.
(2022)
Impact of zero budget natural farming on crop yields in Andhra Pradesh, SE India.
Sustainability
, 14
(3).
ISSN:
2071-1050
|
doi:
https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su14031689
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Duddigan, S.
ORCID: 0000-0002-6228-4462
,
Alexander, P.
,
Shaw, L.
ORCID: 0000-0002-4985-7078
,
Collins, C.
(2021)
Effects of repeated application of organic soil amendments on horticultural soil physicochemical properties, nitrogen budget and yield.
Horticulturae
, 7
(10).
ISSN:
2311-7524
|
doi:
https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae7100371
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Duddigan, S.
,
Fraser, T.
,
Green, I.
,
Diaz, A.
,
Sizmur, T.
ORCID: 0000-0001-9835-7195
,
Tibbett, M.
(2021)
Plant, soil and faunal responses to a contrived pH gradient.
Plant and Soil
ISSN:
0032-079X
|
doi:
https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11104-021-04879-z
- Duddigan, S. , Alexander, P. , Shaw, L. , Sanden, T. , Collins, C. (2020) The Tea Bag Index—UK: using citizen/community science to investigate organic matter decomposition rates in domestic gardens. Sustainability , 12 (17). ISSN: 2071-1050 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12176895
- Duddigan, S. , Gil‐Martínez, M. , Fraser, T. , Green, I. , Diaz, A. , Sizmur, T. , Pawlett, M. , Raulund‐Rasmussen, K. , Tibbett, M. (2020) Evaluating heathland restoration belowground using different quality indices of soil chemical and biological properties. Agronomy , 10 (8). ISSN: 2073-4395 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10081140
- Tibbett, M. , Fraser, T. , Duddigan, S. (2020) Identifying potential threats to soil biodiversity. PeerJ , 8 ISSN: 2167-8359 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.9271
- Duddigan, S. , Shaw, L. , Alexander, P. , Collins, C. (2020) Chemical underpinning of the tea bag index: An examination of the decomposition of tea leaves. Applied and Environmental Soil Science , 2020 ISSN: 1687-7675 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2020/6085180
- Duddigan, S. , Shaw, L. , Alexander, P. , Collins, C. (2019) A comparison of physical soil organic matter fractionation methods for amended soils. Applied and Environmental Soil Science , 2019 ISSN: 1687-7675 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2019/3831241
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Tibbett, M.
,
Gil-Martínez, M.
,
Fraser, T.
,
Green, I.
,
Duddigan, S.
,
De Oliveira, V.
,
Raulund-Rasmussen, K.
,
Sizmur, T.
ORCID: 0000-0001-9835-7195
,
Diaz, A.
(2019)
Long-term acidification of pH neutral grasslands affects soil biodiversity, fertility and function in a heathland restoration.
Catena
, 180
pp.
401-415.
ISSN:
0341-8162
|
doi:
https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2019.03.013