A Bedford Girls’ School Sixth Form student has played a leading part in ground-breaking research looking at the effect of cultivating methods on soil health, and the role this has in global warming.

As part of the Nuffield Research Placement scheme, which provides over 1,000 students each year with the opportunity to work alongside professional scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians, 17-year-old Nilufa Yasmin (pictured) worked under the supervision of Cranfield University PhD student Michail Giannitsopoulos, who was leading the project. They spent four weeks (a total of 70 hours) testing five cultivating methods on two different types of soil: clay and snagsborough.

With previous research showing that reduced tillage methods, as opposed to deep ploughing, had been adopted to conserve soil health, Michail and Nilufa wanted to prove this theory worked.

“There is a high demand on sustainable food and this has led to a growing pressure on soil resources, so it’s vital research is done on the best agricultural methods, in order to produce enough healthy soil.

“Our research proved that the use of reduced tillage methods leads to a marked increase in crop growth, which is hugely significant when considering the agricultural demand, but also issues with global warming.

“It could be suggested that results such as these indicate the use of minimum tillage treatments could have a positive effect on carbon sequestration as more CO2 could be stored as carbon within the soil. It has been shown that improved soil aggregation has reduced the effect of CO2 increase, and so also global warming.”

Nilufa’s involvement in the project also led to her achieving the British Science Association CREST Gold award, a national accolade designed to encourage 16-19-year-olds to take part in STEM activities, and a feat that stands out on a UCAS application. Nilufa hopes to study Biochemistry at university.

She added: “The placement gave me a great opportunity to have a small taste of what it would be like to work in research in a university environment.  It made me realise what I really wanted to do in the future and set me on my career path in Science.”

Dr Helen Gates, Nilufa’s Tutor and Head of Chemistry at Bedford Girls’ School, added: “This experience will really set Nilufa apart from other Science students, as she conducted and wrote up a piece of real research so early in her career.

“Nilufa has shown she is a true scientist, to have the opportunity to demonstrate these skills whilst still at school is fantastic and will give her the confidence to follow her ambitions.”