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Newsletters

  1. Celebrating our achievements

    During 2021 Angela Brandt was seconded to work with the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment on a major new report: Space invaders – A review of how we manage weeds that threaten native ecosystems. The report, which sets out whether Aotearoa New Zealand is doing the best job it can to mana...

  2. From collect to connect – rebalancing our collections and databases

    Manaaki Whenua is the custodian of a number of Nationally Significant Collections and Databases (NSCDs) on behalf of everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand.

  3. Reducing nitrogen losses from dairy farms on stony soils

    In the past two decades, much dryland farming has been converted to irrigated dairy farming in Aotearoa New Zealand, notably in eastern areas of Te Wai Pounamu (the South Island). Here, soils are largely shallow, free-draining, and stony, and dairy conversions have contributed to concerns about incr...

  4. Managing lucerne to fix soil N losses

    Lucerne is a widely used grazing fodder crop, and like other legumes, is able to fix nitrogen (N) in the soil. Well-managed lucerne is highly productive and the plant also has deep roots, which allow water extraction from well below 2 m depth and extract N from the soil.

  5. Improved soil information for Aotearoa

    The Soils Portal, Pātaka Oneone, is Manaaki Whenua’s website for comprehensive infomation about New Zealand’s soil resources. It has been running for 15 years, and currently attracts some 40,000 visitors per year.

  6. How intensified irrigation affects soil physical properties – a pilot study

    New Zealand agriculture has seen rapid land-use change in recent decades, with a decrease in sheep numbers and corresponding rise in dairy cow numbers. This has been matched in the Canterbury region by an expansion in irrigated areas.

  7. Crowding out: why climate change action depends on more than just doing your bit

    Social science research shows that when people decide to “do their bit” for climate change (driving electric cars, recycling, installing solar panels), they may become less inclined to support government policy to combat climate change. This phenomenon, known as ‘crowding out’, can occur because an ...

  8. Software helps facilitate digital soil mapping

    Manaaki Whenua researcher Dr Pierre Roudier is enjoying being both author and contributor on two different software packages in his work on digital soil mapping.

  9. Trees of knowledge: our data at the root of global ecological science

    Researchers at Manaaki Whenua are currently participating in large collaborative research projects starting to answer really big, global-scale questions that tap into data from New Zealand’s Nationally Significant Databases and Collections – the biological and geological memory banks of the country,...

  10. Swapping time for space to track the impact of climate change on soil microbes

    To test the effects of climate change on species at any scale is difficult. Scientists can’t manufacture realistic global warming in a test tube or in a lab over a few hours, or a few days. As a result, a big challenge for climate change researchers has always been how to best record potential shift...