In her article on farming challenges in this issue, Alison Brown describes the use of soil and earthworm studies to assess soil quality (see also this interesting factsheet on soil health and earthworms: www.tinyurl.com/499yx4kp), as well as describing various changes in farming practice that aim to enhance farm ecosystems. This could be the basis of an interesting NEA which builds on ecosystem, food security and water cycle topics within the A-level specifications.
Fifteen years ago, the National Lottery funded a national survey of soil condition and earthworm abundance. This was a citizen science project led by Imperial College London, which asked people around the UK to conduct local surveys and send in their responses. As part of the project, the team developed a great guide outlining how to conduct simple soil and earthworm surveys: www.tinyurl.com/48udhkmk. You will also find more details about the survey, both how it was done and the findings, here: www.tinyurl.com/2bz9v4pa. Together, these are great resources which you could use to develop an NEA on soil health.
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