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Soil Horizons articles

  1. Frozen assets: enabling access to New Zealand’s Antarctic soils heritage

    Since 1957 New Zealand’s soil scientists have been exploring the nature, properties, and formation of the scientifically remarkable Antarctic soils. A 2-year project, supported by a partnership between Manaaki Whenua and Te Tahua Taiao Ngā Taonga – Lottery Environment and Heritage, has culminated in...

  2. An update on the national soil carbon benchmarking and monitoring system for agricultural land in New Zealand

    Every year, under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, New Zealand is obliged to report its national human-produced (anthropogenic) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals, including changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. With average soil carb...

  3. Diverse pasture reduces nitrous oxide emissions – but there’s a catch!

    As New Zealand works toward a low-carbon future there is a critical need to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, particularly from livestock grazing systems.

  4. Sampling event-based drainage in near real time using drainage fluxmeters

    Soil drainage containing chemicals and nutrients, such as from fertilisers, grazing animals, effluent, and other diffuse sources, is a key component in ground water pollution in agricultural areas. Therefore, it is important for farmers and water users to know not only the quantity but also the qual...

  5. Mapping soil temperature and moisture on hill country farms

    We’ve been developing methods for monitoring and mapping soil temperature and moisture on hill country farms as part of the Hill Country Futures programme funded by Beef + Lamb New Zealand, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Seed Force New Zealand, and PGG Wrightson Seeds.

  6. Effect of irrigation on soil physical properties on Canterbury pastoral farms

    In many areas in New Zealand, land use is becoming more intensive, such as through irrigation expansion and changing management practices. Different land use intensities can cause changes to soil physical properties, such as soil compaction and changes in soil water storage pores, but these are not ...

  7. National-scale impacts of climate change on erosion and suspended sediment loads

    Soil sits at the centre of many issues facing policymakers and catchment managers in the 21st century, including land productivity and degradation of aquatic environments. Erosion contributes to the depletion of soil resources, and generates sediment that degrades aquatic environments when levels ex...

  8. Overview of the Soil Health & Resilience Programme – Oneone ora, Tangata ora

    After 5 years of research funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE), the ‘Soil health and resilience – oneone ora, tangata ora’ programme has come to an end.

  9. Soil health factsheets

    As a finale to the Soil health and resilience – Oneone ora, tangata ora programme, we have produced four soil health factsheets. They provide summarised information and explain what soil health is, best management practices and information on soil nutrients, reducing compaction and pugging, and soi...

  10. Predicting soil classes for S-map by modelling tephra depth – preliminary investigation

    Bay of Plenty Regional Council and the Ministry for Primary Industries are funding the expansion of new S-map in the Bay of Plenty (BOP) Region. By utilising digital soil mapping techniques (DSM) large areas of the BOP can be cost effectively incorporated into a new digital map to replace outdated l...

  11. Update of popular Soils Portal released

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

  12. New S-Map data in the Tinui area, Northern Wairarapa

    The upper catchments of the Tinui and Whareama Rivers were added to S-Map this year. This area extends over some 26,000 hectares of hilly and steep country, largely on soft mudstone parent materials. The new mapping abuts existing S-Map coverage to the west and south, added in last year’s update.

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