Jack Pronger

Senior Researcher - Soils and Greenhouse Gases

Land Use & Ecosystems

Research interests

I conduct and provide strategic leadership for research in agricultural peatland systems, soil carbon, and ecosystem water and GHG exchange including work to improve NZs Organic Soils GHG inventory. Some specific research areas include:

· Quantifying GHG emissions from drained Organic Soils under different land uses

· Investigating land and water management approaches to reduce GHG emissions and subsidence from peat soils.

· Refining NZs emissions inventory approaches for Organic Soils for national greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting

· Measurements and monitoring of peat subsidence rates using a range of approaches from surface survey and depth probing to airborne lidar linked to land management

· Water and carbon exchange of pastoral systems at paddock to ecosystem scales using a micrometeorological technique (eddy covariance)) and natural abundance C isotopes

Qualifications

Waikato
BSc(Hons) Earth Sciences
2015

Waikato
BSc Earth Sciences & Environmental Planning
2012

Publications

Goodrich J, Pronger J, Campbell D, Glover-Clark G, Price R, Mudge P, Wyatt J, Robertson H, Wall A, Wheatley-Wilson A, Schipper L 2025. Large greenhouse gas emissions from drained peatlands in New Zealand, and the climate mitigation potential of rewetting. Mires and Peat 32: 18. WOS:001633909600003 https://doi.org/10.19189/001c.147886

McNally S, Pronger J, Goodrich J, Allen K, Graham S, McNeill S, Roudier P, Norris T, Barnett A, Schipper L, Mudge P 2025. Reconciling historic and contemporary sampling of soil organic carbon stocks: Does sampling approach create systematic bias? Geoderma 458: 7. WOS:001491407600002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117338

Wall AM, Wecking AR, Goodrich JP, Pronger J, Campbell DI, Morcom CP, Schipper LA 2023. Paddock-scale carbon and greenhouse gas budgets in the first year following the renewal of an intensively grazed perennial pasture. Soil & Tillage Research 234. WOS:001037415200001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.still.2023.105814

Mudge PL, Millar J, Pronger J, Roulston A, Penny V, Fraser S, Eger A, Caspari T, Robertson B, Mason NWH, Schipper LA 2021. Impacts of irrigation on soil C and N stocks in grazed grasslands depends on aridity and irrigation duration. Geoderma 399. WOS:000656902300009 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2021.115109

Pronger J 2021. For peat's sake! Pūtaiao - Manaaki Whenua science summary. Lincoln, NZ, Manaaki Whenua. Pp. 3. https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/publications/putaiao/

Mason NWH, Orwin KH, Lambie S, Waugh D, Pronger J, Carmona CP, Mudge P 2020. Resource-use efficiency drives overyielding via enhanced complementarity. Oecologia 193(4): 995-1010. MEDLINE:32844244 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04732-7

Pronger J, Campbell DI, Clearwater MJ, Mudge PL, Rutledge S, Wall AM, Schipper LA 2019. Toward optimisation of water use efficiency in dryland pastures using carbon isotope discrimination as a tool to select plant species mixtures. Science of the Total Environment 665: 698-708. WOS:000460628600071 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.014

Whitehead D, Schipper LA, Pronger J, Moinet GYK, Mudge PL, Pereira RC, Kirschbaum MUF, McNally SR, Beare MH, Camps-Arbestain M 2018. Management practices to reduce losses or increase soil carbon stocks in temperate grazed grasslands: New Zealand as a case study. Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment 265: 432-443. WOS:000443664900044 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2018.06.022

Mudge P, Pronger J, Fraser S, Eger A, Thornburrow D, Caspari T, Schipper L 2017. Impact of irrigation on soil carbon and nitrogen. Soil Horizons. http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/publications/newsletters/soil/issue-26,-october-2017

Rutledge S, Wall AM, Mudge PL, Troughton B, Campbell DI, Pronger J, Joshi C, Schipper LA 2017. The carbon balance of temperate grasslands part II: the impact of pasture renewal via direct drilling. Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment 239: 132–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2017.01.013

Rutledge S, Wall AM, Mudge PL, Troughton B, Campbell DI, Pronger J, Joshi C, Schipper LA 2017. The carbon balance of temperate grasslands part I: the impact of increased species diversity. Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment 239: 310–323. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2017.01.039

Pronger J, Schipper LA, Hill RB, Campbell DI, McLeod M 2014. Subsidence rates of drained agricultural peatlands in New Zealand and the relationship with time since drainage. Journal of Environmental Quality 43(4): 1442–1449. https://doi.org/10.2134/jeq2013.12.0505

Schipper LA, Dodd MB, Pronger J, Mudge PL, Upsdell M, Moss RA 2013. Decadal changes in soil carbon and nitrogen under a range of irrigation and phosphorus fertilizer treatments. Soil Science Society of America Journal 77(1): 246–256. https://doi.org/10.2136/sssaj2012.0126