| Research activity 2015/16 Key Achievements |
Core Funding Investment ($M excl GST) |
| |
2015/16 (planned) |
2015/16 (actual) |
| Manageing Land & Water |
$3.42 |
$3.43 |
| End-users: MPI; NIWA; PFR; SCION, ESR; AgResearch; Cawthron; MfE; Consulting firms; researchers; educators; DairyNZ; regional councils; Māori; Waikato-Tainui; Ngati Porou; landfill operators; urban planners; primary industries and sector groups, notably the fertiliser and forestry industries; Agrilink; CropX, Universities. |
| Fundamental Soil and Plant Processes – Outcome 2 |
N/A |
$1.31 |
- Established that nitrate concentrations in soils under gorse and broom were significantly higher than under adjacent native vegetation and pasture, and nitrogen leaching from gorse could contribute up to 25% of a catchment's N load if all marginal agricultural land was abandoned and colonised by gorse. Where nitrogen load limits are imposed on catchments, further invasion of gorse and broom on marginal land could limit ‘headroom’ for agricultural intensification on more productive land.
- Demonstrated the close relationship between C and N cycling under urine patches and that both elements need to be considered when addressing the environmental impacts of grazing-based primary production systems. Little international work is conducted on the impact of urine on carbon cycling or bacterial and fungal community structure and diversity outside of the nitrogen cycle. In a novel project, we showed the response of microbial catabolic function, functional diversity, and bacterial and fungal community structure and diversity to the addition of bovine urine in a range of intensively grazed soils.
- Showed decreases in soil carbon and nitrogen stocks in irrigated, grazed pastoral agriculture and that loss of soil organic matter may have implications for the long-term sustainability of such agriculture in New Zealand. Measurements of microbial community composition and sensitivity of microbial respiration to temperature/moisture were made to identify potential mechanisms for the observed losses.
|
| Land Use Intensification – Outcome 2 and 3 |
N/A |
$1.14 |
- Demonstrated that fungal species ubiquitous in productive system soils can denitrify inorganic nitrogen and produce N2O even in the presence of oxygen. Showed that significant amounts of N2O could be produced via abiotic chemo-denitrification in oxic conditions. These results question current understanding of denitrification pathways, open up new avenues for N removal in agricultural soils, and could explain important gaps in N budgets from farm to global scales.
- Established infrastructure to make continuous paddock-scale measurements of carbon, nutrient and water fluxes for irrigated and dryland lucerne on stony soils. These critical measurements help determine management options to enable dairying on leaky stony soils to meet regulations.
- Showed an environmental upside to dairying. In what could be a significant finding, conversion of extensive sheep production to intensive dairying can lead to an immediate increase in soil carbon. This is in contrast to other, longer-term methods that suggest soils under intensive dairying lose carbon.
|
| Soil and Contaminant Management – Outcome 2 |
N/A |
$0.06 |
- Further assessed the risks associated with soil cadmium to the agricultural sector, focussed on the effects of soil properties on cadmium uptake by agricultural crops.
|
| Erosion Processes and Management – Outcomes 2 |
N/A |
$0.19 |
- Documented the procedures for setting up and running the SedNetNZ model to ensure its consistent use across NZ. It is used by regional councils as the model of choice for analysing erosion and sediment processes within catchments and the effect of erosion mitigation at catchment scale.
- Developed procedures for assessing the on-site and off-site impacts of erosion mitigation. Quantitative data on the effectiveness of regional council investment in erosion mitigation are scarce but will become important in meeting sediment standards in the National Objectives Framework when they are established.
- Progressed development of an erosion hazard methodology. Used multi-temporal landslide data to quantitatively investigate drivers of shallow landslide erosion. The analysis provides the probability of shallow landslides in relation to drivers and could be used to target erosion mitigation.
|
| Integrated Land and Water Management – Outcomes 2 and 4 |
N/A |
$0.57 |
- Developed automated soil moisture sensors, including iridium satellite transmission of soil moisture data and an automated method to calibrate and compare commercial sensors for five different soil textures.
- Analysed the effects and effectiveness of plan implementation in developing indicators to support adaptive management and provide socio-economic metrics (e.g. knowledge, attitudes, skills, aspirations, behaviours, etc.), which will assist in improving the efficacy and efficiency of future catchment planning.
- Established experimental lysimeters to assess N leaching under different management regimes.
|
| Toitu Te Whenua – Outcomes 1 and 2 |
N/A |
$0.17 |
- Compiled a Cultural Wetland Handbook focused on the needs of Māori for the restoration of freshwater wetlands. Case studies are used to identify priority wetlands, demonstrate the use of cultural indicators and monitoring, and outline relevant restoration programmes for future research.
- Demonstrated culturally appropriate approaches to development of Māori lands and showed how agencies can work together in providing Māori land data for NZ Tools and for Māori agribusiness, including for mānuka honey production.
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