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Soil Horizons articles

  1. 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.

  2. 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...

  3. 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 ...

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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...

  7. 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...

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. 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.

  11. 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.

  12. 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.

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