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2024 News

  1. Smarter research hits its target

    The Smarter Targeting of Erosion Control programme has wrapped up five years of research aimed at answering some of the key questions around where erosion occurs and how much and what type of sediment is produced by which processes.

  2. Fingerprints point to the sediment source

    Manaaki Whenua researchers are recognised internationally for their knowledge of sediment fingerprinting (also referred to as sediment tracing), an approach that directly connects the place where erosion happens in a catchment to the sediment that ends up in downstream rivers or lakes.

  3. Closing the ‘window of vulnerability’

    Most commercial forests in Aotearoa New Zealand are clear-fell harvested. Trees of harvest age are cut down in areas called coupes or compartments. In many forests, these compartments often include steep hillsides, which go from being forested for decades to being bare and visible almost overnight. ...

  4. Keeping urban soils spongy

    Manaaki Whenua researchers are assessing the impact of urban development on soils, quantifying if urbanisation is making soils less spongy. Urbanisation is associated with increased stormwater run-off, largely due to an increase in impervious surfaces. When coupled with less spongy greenspaces and e...

  5. Maximising use of ‘surplus’ soils and sediments

    Manaaki Whenua researchers have developed the first ever AoNZ guide to help improve the management of surplus soils. These are the soils left behind after excavations and widespread soil disturbance associated with building and infrastructure developments, or natural processes such as landslips. Typ...

  6. How farming and changing irrigation affect nitrogen and phosphorus runoff

    Irrigation to increase pasture and crop yields is often associated with an increase in nutrient inputs through fertiliser and changing management practices. Use of these practices has raised concerns about nutrient losses and their potential environmental impacts, especially for water quality.

  7. SedNetNZ supports land and water planning

    Researchers from Manaaki Whenua have been working closely with regional councils in AoNZ to apply the SedNetNZ model to support land and water planning.

  8. Linking soil quality indicators to land use pressure and water quality

    For the first time in AoNZ researchers have been able to link soil and water quality to land-use pressures by including the use of land valuation data.

  9. Antarctic soils in from the cold

    Manaaki Whenua researchers have made a significant contribution to future research on the properties of Antarctic soils.

  10. Connecting data back to tangata whenua

    Connecting data back to the whenua is at the heart of a new Manaaki Whenua project. Across our collections, Manaaki Whenua holds and cares for a rich array of more than 820,000 specimen samples from invertebrates, to fungi, to flora and fauna and taonga plant species.