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2020 Soil Horizons articles

  1. More S-map support for farm-scale soil information

    A recent survey of S-map Online users and three focus groups made it clear that S-map needed to support the demand for soil information at the farm scale. As a result, two new S-map tools have been developed and added to our main delivery platform, S-map Online. Two more are under development.

  2. Lysimeter research identifying management practices to reduce nitrogen leaching

    Intensive agricultural practices, such as high animal stocking rates, use of nitrogen fertilisers, and irrigation with water and effluent, can lead to high leaching losses and consequent degradation of surface and groundwater quality. To reduce these environmental impacts, in accordance with the Nat...

  3. Dung beetles: NZ’s missing link to achieve sustainable pastoral agriculture?

    Dung beetles move dung from the soil surface by building tunnels, potentially increasing pathogen and nutrient leaching through the soil while decreasing pathogens and nutrients in runoff.

  4. Defining soil health from a Māori world view

    The Soil Health and Resilience: Oneone Ora, Tangata Ora programme is developing both the science to understand soil resilience and soil health and the kaupapa Māori research to explore soil health from a Te Ao Māori/mātauranga Māori perspective.

  5. New water retention model in S-map

    New Zealand is internationally recognised as having a high diversity of soil types, with S-map identifying over 5,000 soil siblings in the 36% of the country mapped thus far.

  6. Real-time monitoring to detect erosion sources affecting sediment-related water quality

    Recent amendments to the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPS-FM 2020) require regional councils to set objectives for sediment-related water quality attributes to manage suspended and deposited fine sediment. Understanding the connectivity between sediment sources and the stream...

  7. Soil physics and environmental chemistry laboratories – historical lineage and their role in supporting critical national research and soil monitoring

    Within this next decade, New Zealand will have had 100 years of soil research and soil analyses.

    The concept behind what later became known as ‘Soil Bureau’ began in June 1930 with an announcement from Prime Minister Forbes to help answer soil-related problems in farming and to begin soil surveys ...

  8. Temporal changes in soil physical properties under winter wheat cropping

    Soil physical properties, such as pore-size distribution and bulk density, affect water and air transmission through soil, which in turn affects water storage and its availability to plants.

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