Fieldwork highlights

I collected soil cores on an agricultural field for conducting my experiment on greenhouse gas emissions and plant growth. This involved hammering down pipes into peat soil to preserve the soil structure. It was hard work, requiring the use of mallets and shovels. It took us the whole day and we returned to Sheffield at night.

I am currently preparing a field experiment in Leicester, in a city council allotment plot. The field experiments consist in understanding how different typologies of urban green spaces affect urban soil quality. I will also examine how the application of biochar influence the soil quality and affect the soil available proportion of heavy metals to own-grown food. I am currently setting up the experiment and taking soil samples to characterise the soil. Then, the biochar will be added to some plots and later, I will proceed with sowing and planting grass, different types of vegetables and willow. During the following 3 years, soil samples and crop samples will be analyse to keep monitored the changes in the soil qualities and in the crops.

I have been to Jordan twice to work at the Za’atari refugee camp, where we are trying to implement communal hydroponic grow areas within the camp to give residents the freedom to grow their own produce. This is otherwise not possible due to soil health problems, lack of water, and rules which do not allow refugees to plant anything in the ground. The current idea is to use a nutrient film technique style of growing hydroponically. This system is built almost entirely from recycled materials and uses polyurethane foam mattresses as a growing media. An initial system has been built and is currently waiting approval to have several systems installed within the camp.

Harry Wright,