Issue 20, September 2011

Special issue: Soil & Land Information

In this issue

Editorial

In this 20th issue of Soil Horizons we highlight our latest advances in the collection, use and sharing of nationally important soil and land resource data.

Land Resource Information: A strategic roadmap for the future

Landcare Research, like all the Crown Research Institutes, has agreed a Statement of Core Purpose in partnership with stakeholders and shareholders, mapping out where and how our science can deliver national benefit.

Supplying land and soils data over the web – the LRIS portal

Access to the national Land Resource Inventory (LRI) has been transformed through the use of Internet and ‘Google Earth’ style technologies.

S-map Online: an interactive mapping and query application for New Zealand soils data

S-map is a new digital soil spatial information system for New Zealand created as part of the government-funded SpInfo (Spatial Information) programme run by Landcare Research.

New Zealand Soil Classification updated and extended

A number of new soils have been recognised in New Zealand and are published in a new edition of the Soil Classification in New Zealand (Hewitt 2010).

The Global Soil Map will produce a digital 3D map of the world’s soils predicting soil attributes such as carbon and texture. This image shows how the variability of properties with depth can be displayed. Credit: CSIR.

New Zealand – part of GlobalSoilMap.net

A global consortium has been formed that aims to make a new digital soil map of the world. Data for 11 key soil attributes will be modelled for 6 soil depth increments and mapped at 90-m resolution.

Figure 1. The contribution of Taranaki and inland ecosystems to a national measure of natural habitat provision (a supporting ecosystem service): dark green is high; light green is moderately high; yellow is moderate; brown is low; and grey is near zero.

Ecosystem Services for multiple outcomes

Communities not only require their environment to provide food and drink but also shelter, livelihoods, lifestyle, and access to goods. These components of human well-being are provided directly and indirectly by both managed and natural ecosystems.

Resampling the National Soils Database (NSD) sites.

Detecting changes in soil carbon and nitrogen under pastoral land use in New Zealand

We have revisited and resampled the National Soils Database sites to compare changes in soil carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and pH since archived samples were collected (dating back to 1960s).

Figure 2. Slope layers generated from 15 m contour-based DEM (Panel A) and the equivalent 2 m LiDAR DEM (Panel B). The LiDAR DEM would clearly be much more useful for high-resolution erosion applications requiring slope information, such as erosion and soil-landscape modelling. (Raw LiDAR data courtesy of Environment Waikato.

Making better use of LiDAR in soil and landscape modelling

LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) is a remote sensing technique that uses high-frequency laser pulses to gather information about a surface. A LiDAR survey may contain multiple points per square metre over very large areas with vertical accuracies of 0.15 m or even better, enabling the generation of very high resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEMs).

Figure 1. Maps to show depth to water table (cm) for a 6-day period (3–8 March) in a 75-hectare irrigated maize field in the Manawatu Sand Country.

Tracking the depth to water table in the Manawatu Sand Country

We are using a wireless network of sensors installed in the ground to monitor soil moisture and depth to water table at our research site in the Manawatu Sand Country.

Figure 1. Extensive old landslide erosion at the Te Whanga site.

Effect of erosion on soil carbon stocks

Since the development of the Soil Carbon Monitoring System (Soil CMS) to predict soil carbon stocks, it has been recognised that mass movement erosion potentially has a major influence on these stocks.

Village plant nursery, Ra province, Fiji.

Protecting coral reefs in the Pacific

News media report regularly on the threats to coral reefs from climate warming. However, sedimentation from adjacent catchments onto near-shore coral is a more visible impact for Pacific Island communities who rely on these coral reefs for fish, tourism, and maintaining traditional cultural values.

Figure 1. View westwards along Wright Valley from Goodspeed alpine glacier on Christmas Day 2010. Note alpine glaciers on the south wall of the valley and the inland flowing Onyx River in the valley bottom.

Mapping Antarctic soils

The Antarctic environment and its soils are protected by international treaty that gives freedom for scientific investigation and sets stringent standards of environmental protection.

LCDB – from satellite imagery (top) to a useful map (bottom).

New editions of the NZ Land Cover Database

How and where is land cover in New Zealand changing through time? What are the major characteristics of this change? These two key questions will be answered by new editions of the New Zealand Land Cover Database (LCDB).

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