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Soil Horizons articles

  1. Land use capability back in the spotlight

    In September 2022 the National Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land was released. This targets the safeguarding of New Zealand’s most favourable soils for food and fibre production. A new web service in support of this effort will soon be released.

  2. Soils of Banks Peninsula – large complexity in a small space

    As part of ongoing efforts to extend the coverage of New Zealand’s national soil map, S-map, a team of pedologists from Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research, targeted one of the very conspicuous blank spots on the national soil map – Banks Peninsula in Canterbury. This significant milestone has its ge...

  3. Tactical use of proximal sensing tools for the S-map soil survey

    Although the stony soils of the upper Wairau Valley, Marlborough, have underpinned the success of winemakers, they have made soil mapping there a slow and arduous task. The valley has been shaped by the Wairau River, and its soils have formed in the gravels left behind as the river changed course. A...

  4. A farmer-friendly infiltrometer

    Weather events over recent years have motivated farming, industry, and environmental protection authorities to search for ways to minimise environmental pollution. One way of achieving this goal is to increase agricultural water-use efficiency and manage storm water generation more efficiently on-fa...

  5. Soil judging competition develops skills and knowledge vital to understanding and protecting soil

    You don’t need experience to compete in a soil judging competition, as participants in the second National New Zealand Soil Judging Competition recently discovered. The biennial event, which took place during the New Zealand Society of Soil Science conference in Marlborough in late November 2022, ai...

  6. Guidance on the sustainable management of surplus soils in New Zealand

    ‘Surplus soils’ are those soils that have been disturbed through land and infrastructure development or natural processes (e.g. landslips, silt/sediment) and are unable to be beneficially used on-site. An Envirolink Tools project on surplus soils was carried out from July 2022 to August 2023. The pr...

  7. Development of a semi-automated, inexpensive, climate-controlled plant growth unit

    A plant growth unit is essential for growing plants under controlled conditions so that uniform plant material can be made available for experiments to study plant responses to changing environmental conditions. It provides a controlled environment, including temperature, humidity, light intensity a...

  8. 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...

  9. 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...

  10. 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.

  11. 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...

  12. 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.

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