Following the positive results of our farm-set trials and non-replicated conventional studies in collaboration with the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) and The University of Nottingham respectively in 2024, Sea2Soil has commissioned further, ground-breaking research to be undertaken by The University of Nottingham (UoN).
This season, expert scientists from the Soil Science Department at Sutton Bonington Research Campus will start to assess the effective impact of Sea2Soil soil improver fertiliser on soil health and carbon footprint (specifically greenhouse gas emissions, and particularly nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide fluxes). Soil health investigation research work will focus on soil chemistry as well as soil biology and will include the use of innovative analysis techniques such as biomarker analysis of beneficial fungi and bacteria ratios, so important in building biological health within soils. Importantly, the Phase 2 work will not only look at the impacts of Sea2Soil on soil health but will also measure crop yields, for practical use context to growers.
Field trial design
The work being undertaken in these studies will validate Sea2Soil in two ways at scale – one approach consisting of intensive measurements within a randomised block trial based at the UoN farm site at Sutton Bonington for two different crops, and a second approach based on a wider set of measurements across other working farms in the UK, investigating wider spatial variability in terms of impacts of management on soil health, carbon, and biology.
Phase 2 work will include a randomised field trial at the UoN farm with four replicate blocks and include six different treatments in total. The treatments are based on good farm commercial practice with standard Nitrogen (N) fertiliser applied as ammonium nitrate vs. the same farm practice with Sea2Soil applied in place of synthetic N fertiliser. There are also treatments where reduced N levels are being tested with or without Sea2Soil, which are important to test the concept of using Sea2Soil to complement conventional systems where growers are looking to cut down and reduce their reliance on synthetic N fertilisers for environmental and/or cost reasons.
The core UoN trials will be put into context by wider measurements at other commercial farms applying the product, to measure the impacts on soil health at much larger spatial scales, different soil types etc. This wider work will target a minimum of 20 paired fields where Sea2Soil is being used and managed vs unamended fields.
Field and lab analyses
In field trials, the UoN team will carry out a Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure (VESS) rating the soil structure based on physical appearance by digging shallow soil pits (30cm deep). Soil resistance (which describes changes in resistance through the soil profile down to 75 cm), and shear strength (compaction in the top 5 cm) will also be measured in the field. Soil samples will be taken and analysed in the laboratory (in both UoN core field trials and wider farm network measurements) for: soil moisture content, soil organic matter content, bulk density, pH, total and available nutrients (N, P, K) and fungal to bacterial ratios (measured using fatty acid biomarker analysis), to assess impacts on soil microbial community composition.
Soil greenhouse gases will be measured using static, closed chamber methodology for monitoring emissions across agricultural systems, including wheat. The measurements taken during plant growth will focus on the early days post-application of Sea2Soil and fertiliser treatments when peak emissions generally occur. It is hoped that flux measurements from across the trial will allow a comparison of gaseous carbon and nitrogen emission losses from different application rates versus farm standards. Plot yields and quality data will also be analysed for all treatments at harvest, with quality measurements focusing on grain nutrient content.
Timelines
Field trials and sampling will begin this month, with the project being headed up by Dr Nick Girkin, Assistant Professor in Environmental Science at Nottingham and Dr Hannah Cooper, along with a research assistant and field technician. An interim results report detailing sampling and analytical methodologies, statistical analyses, and results interpretation will be available this summer before the full Phase 2 report is published.
Watch this space! The team will be keeping a close eye on this phase of research and will report back on findings later in the season.