They will measure the amount of carbon, phosphate and nitrate in the soil, together with the rate of plant growth and microbial decomposition.

ECONOMIST: Global warming and the permafrost

Levels of key nutrients, such as phosphate and nitrate, are highest in the Midlands, East and South of the country where population density is highest and farming methods the most intense.

BBC: English and Welsh rivers 'improving'

The general goal of this workshop is a focused review and adoption of a minimum set of QC procedures and QC flags starting with in situ dissolved inorganic nutrients (phosphate, nitrate, nitrite, and silicate) and dissolved oxygen.

UNESCO: NATURAL SCIENCES

And David Laird, of America's Department of Agriculture, showed that biochar even helped the rich soil of America's Midwest by reducing the leaching from it of a number of nutrients, including nitrate, phosphate and potassium.

ECONOMIST: Biochar could enrich soils and cut greenhouse gases as well