Student research spotlight: Isabel's research on aquatic plant conservation
Posted on 14 May 2025
Continuing our series on outstanding student research from the latest Student Sustainability Research Conference 2025 (SSRC25) in March, we turn our attention to Isabel Navarro Law, a Third Year PhD student in the Department of Environment and Geography at the University of York who presented her work at the conference.
Isabel’s research focuses on the distribution of aquatic plants near agricultural land and how pollution risk, particularly herbicide exposure, influences their long-term recovery.
Tell us about your research and what inspired you to pursue this particular area of sustainability research.
We need to be able to sustainably feed our growing population without adversely impacting biodiversity. The use of herbicides on agricultural land cannot be avoided, so ensuring that it is used as safely and sustainably as possible is of paramount importance.
My work focuses on aquatic plants located near agricultural land. I am looking at the distribution of aquatic plants as well as how pollution risk can influence this. I have been using the mesocosm facility based at Fera near York to investigate how herbicide exposure in particular influences the community composition and long term recovery of aquatic plants.
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What was your experience presenting at SSRC25?
The Student Sustainability Research Conference (SSRC25) was a fun and invaluable day. It was a great opportunity to share my research with a friendly and engaged audience.
Completing a PhD can cause you to fixate on one particular area (in my case, agriculture), however the SSRC25 was a great way to learn about sustainability in a range of other topics including fashion, energy and the community. I would strongly recommend attending SSRC25 to meet other like-minded and friendly students from across Yorkshire.
Where do you hope your research will lead?
I have found some interesting and novel results so far, however as is often the case, these open up more questions than they answer! Investigating whether chemical regulation and policy should factor in long-term recovery and community composition of aquatic plants will be an important aspect of my PhD.
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A huge thanks to Isabel for sharing more about her research and experience presenting at the conference. We're excited to hear about Isabel's outcomes as she completes the final stages of her research.
Stay tuned for more stories showcasing the incredible work being done across our student community.