Sarah Duddigan- PhD
- Lecturer at University of Reading
Sarah Duddigan
- PhD
- Lecturer at University of Reading
About
23
Publications
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422
Citations
Introduction
Current projects include:
- Soil acidification measures for reversion of agricultural land
to heathland
- Zero budget natural farming and the effect on soil
biophysical properties
PhD research was on the fate of carbon from organic amendments in a horticultural system, the mechanisms governing carbon stabilisation within the soil, and how organic amendments impact on soil chemical, physical and biological properties.
Also coordinator of the Tea Bag Index UK citizen science project. Which works with members of the public, in the UK, measuring decomposition rates in their gardens:
www.teabagindexuk.wordpress.com
Current institution
Publications
Publications (23)
Decomposition is a key flux of terrestrial carbon to the atmosphere. .erefore, gaining a better understanding of how plant litter decomposes in soil, and what governs this process, is vital for global climate models. .e Tea Bag Index (TBI) was introduced by Keuskamp et al. (2013) as a novel method for measuring litter decomposition rate and stabili...
A decline in soil biodiversity is generally considered to be the reduction of forms of life living in soils, both in terms of quantity and variety. Where soil biodiversity decline occurs, it can significantly affect the soils’ ability to function, respond to perturbations and recover from a disturbance. Several soil threats have been identified as...
Application of organic soil amendments is commonplace in horticulture to improve soil fertility. Whether this practice can also augment the soil carbon (C) pool has been of increasing interest in recent years. We used a controlled field experiment that has received annual applications of six different horticultural soil amendments for seven consecu...
Unlabelled:
Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) is a grassroot agrarian movement and a state backed extension in Andhra Pradesh, and has been claimed to potentially meet the twin goals of global food security and environmental conservation. However, there is a lack of statistically evaluated data to support assertions of yield benefits of ZBNF comp...
The conversion of lowland heathland to agricultural land in Europe significantly depleted soil carbon stocks. Restoring heathlands has been proposed as a mechanism to sequester soil carbon. Here we compared soil carbon in (i) agricultural pasture; (ii) native heathland and (iii) restored heathland through acidification with elemental sulfur (sulphu...
Responding to Mori (2025), we discuss that the simplifications and implications of the Tea Bag Index are essential to its ease of use. However, they necessitate careful attention, especially regarding the appropriate incubation time. Aligning with Mori (2025), we call for a deeper understanding of the interpretation of k_TBI.
Mining brings economic benefits but can also harm local communities and the environment. Our study focused on better planning for land use after mining activities end in areas of the Philippines by engaging directly with local communities. We held a workshop at the Padcal Mine where community members shared their views on how nature supports their...
India is a leader in the transition to natural farming, and the state of Andhra Pradesh is at the forefront. This interdisciplinary study seeks to understand the motivations behind Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) adoption in two districts in different climatic zones in Andhra Pradesh (Anantapur and Visakhapatnam). Public messaging about ZBNF gen...
Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) in Andhra Pradesh promotes home-made, locally sourced, agrochemical-free inputs and regenerative land management techniques. Inputs consist of seed treatments (bijamrita), microbial inoculum applied either as a liquid foliar spray (liquid jiwamrita) or solid top dressing (solid jiwamrita) to the soil, and mulching...
Soil enzyme assays are often used as indicators of potential biological functions. The objective of this study was to understand enzyme activity across a range of soil pH. Soils (0–15 cm) were collected from a heathland restoration project (established 1999) on the Isle of Purbeck, UK with treatments of elemental sulphur or ferrous sulphate compare...
The breakdown of plant material fuels soil functioning and biodiversity. Currently, process understanding of global decomposition patterns and the drivers of such patterns are hampered by the lack of coherent large‐scale datasets. We buried 36,000 individual litterbags (tea bags) worldwide and found an overall negative correlation between initial m...
To examine the potential applications of hyperaccumulator plants in the Philippines, we reviewed current data on the extent of metal hyperaccumulation in native species and partitioning of metals within the plant tissue. Twenty-eight species had reported tissue concentrations above the hyperaccumulator threshold, 11 species were endemic to the Phil...
We believe that correcting for leaching in (terrestrial) litterbags studies such as the Tea Bag Index will result in more uncertainties than it resolves. This is mainly because leaching occurs in pulses upon changes in the environment and because leached material can still be mineralized after leaching. Furthermore, amount of material that potentia...
It has been claimed that Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF), a burgeoning practice of farming in India based on low-inputs and influenced by agro-ecological principles, has the potential to improve farm viability and food security. However, there is concern that the success of the social movement fueling the adoption of ZBNF has become out of step...
Application of organic amendments to soil is commonplace in domestic gardening. However, a vast array of materials could be labelled as ‘compost’ by retailers and suppliers. We investigated six different amendments currently used, or available for use, in horticulture: composted bark, composted bracken, spent mushroom compost, composted horse manur...
Purpose
To build a more holistic understanding of soil pH change we assessed the synchronised effects of a contrived soil pH change on soil chemistry, vegetation growth and nutrition, and soil faunal abundance and diversity.
Methods
We established a fifteen year old field experiment with a contrived pH gradient (pH 4.3 to 6.3) and measured the eff...
Gardening has the potential to influence several ecosystem services, including soil carbon dynamics, and shape progression towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals, (e.g., SDG 13). There are very few citizen/community science projects that have been set up to test an explicit hypothesis. However, citizen/community science allows collection of c...
Reversion of agricultural land to heathland and acid grassland is a priority for the conservation of these rare habitats. Restoration processes require interventions to reverse the effects of fertilization and acidity amelioration undertaken during decades of agricultural production. Belowground assessments of restoration success are few, and we ha...
Selecting a suitable physical fractionation method, to investigate soil organic matter dynamics, from the plethora that are available is a difficult task. Using five different physical fractionation methods, on soils either nontreated or with a history of amendment with a range of exogenous organic matter inputs (Irish moss peat; composted horse ma...
In the wider context of heathland restoration, we investigated how field scale experimental acidification with sulphur (sulfur) affected soil biodiversity, fertility and function over a period of 17 years. A field experiment was conducted in the Isle of Purbeck, England, using ferrous sulphate and elemental sulphur as acidifying agents. We tested t...
