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2019 Soil Horizons articles

  1. Targeting smarter erosion control with new research

    A new 5-year (2018–2023) MBIE funded programme ‘Smarter Targeting of Erosion Control’ (STEC) is now well underway, exploring cost-effective ways of targeting land-based erosion control in the hope of slowing the damage and improving water quality.

  2. Identification of high-risk agricultural activities

    Winter forage cropping and grazing practices in New Zealand hill country can result in severe de-vegetation and erosion, and therefore have a significant negative impact on downstream water quality. Research has shown that sediment and nutrient losses from winter-grazed hill country pasture are grea...

  3. Soil Matters

    An integrated approach to soil health and resilience.
    Through our MBIE Endeavour funded programme (C09X1613) Soil health and resilience – oneone ora tangata ora we are exploring the concept of ‘soil health’ and what it means across New Zealand society using both a conventional science and a mātauran...

  4. The case of the finite soils

    Urban encroachment onto versatile land is a growing concern across New Zealand with agricultural and horticultural land being lost to urban development.

  5. Reducing water use and nitrogen loss under irrigated cropping

    Soil physical properties, such as profile available water, are key influences on irrigation management, while others influence environmental outcomes, such as soil drainage and nutrient loss. Soils can be spatially variable, with varying capacity for water storage.

  6. Managing irrigation and harvest intensity of lucerne to increase soil carbon stocks

    There is growing recognition of the need to increase soil carbon stocks to improve soil fertility, enhance the sustainability and resilience of productive systems, and sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to offset greenhouse gas emissions.

  7. National soil carbon monitoring system for agricultural land

    This study will improve New Zealand’s ability to report greenhouse gas emissions and removals under international climate change agreements and satisfy a growing desire by primary industry organisations and individual farmers to know how New Zealand’s soil carbon stocks might be changing.

  8. Soil specific surface area

    Soils can store large amounts of soil organic carbon (SOC) because carbon can be shielded in organo-mineral complexes that form on mineral surfaces and protect organic molecules from microbial decomposition.

  9. Recent progress in soil spectroscopy

    Sustainable land management requires reliable information about a wide range of soil properties, but the cost – both financial and in terms of time – of direct measurements for those properties, can be a burden. Proximal sensing technologies can offer an alternative to the reference laboratory metho...

  10. Infiltrometer network

    One of the key soil information requirements for smart agriculture and storm water management is how fast water infiltrates into the soil at various antecedent soil moisture conditions. Infiltration data are the most important factors for estimating run-off of water applied at a known rate.

  11. Enriching S-map soil information

    The S-map NextGen programme is a 5-year MBIE Endeavour funded programme focussed on the science that underpins S-map, New Zealand’s national soil map.

  12. Soil Guideline Values

    Soil guideline value (SGV) is a generic term used to collectively describe different criteria that typically identify concentrations of substances such as nutrients and contaminants in order to manage soil quality.

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