Volume 55 No 2 April 2007 - New Zealand Society of Soil Science

Obituaries Ken Lee and Colin Vucetich
Soil Biology – a core New Zealand business
A history of soil survey & selected aspects of soil
conservation in NZ, Part One – by Phil Tonkin
Volume 55 No 2 April 2007

New Zealand Soil News
newsletter of the New Zealand Society of Soil Science
ISSN 0545-7904
volume 55 Number 2 April 2007
Contents
Page
Editorial Philip Tonkin 49
Profiles of Council members 50
Obituaries Ken Lee G Yeates &
J Churchman 53
Colin Vucetich 55
Articles Soil Biology a Core NZ Businses Prof J Rowarth 56
– a Core New Zealand Business
Land Use Capability Handbook G Douglas 57
New Zealand Society of Soil Science Archives J Adams 58
A History of soil survey and selected aspects of
Soil conservation in New Zealand – Part One P Tonkin 59
News from correspondents 71
NZSSS 78
Historic photographs 83
Book review
Australian Soil Fertility Manual (Third Edition)
Editor Graham Price J Adams 85
Abstracts 85
H.J. Di et al
Comparison of the effectiveness of a nitrification inhibitor, dicyandiamide
(DCD), in reducing nitrous oxide emissions in four different soils under
different climatic and management conditions
K Muller et al A critical review of the influence of effluent irrigation on the fate of
pesticides in soil
Greg Barkle et al Denitrification capacity in the vadose zone at three sites in the Lake
Taupo catchment, New Zealand
Upcoming conferences 88
Job Vacancies 90
47

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Editor I Vogeler- IVogeler@hortresearch.co.nz
Typing I Vanderkolk – isabelle.vanderkolk@agresearch.co.nz
Printing Massey University Printery
Correspondents I Lynn, Landcare Research, Lincoln; C.Smith, Lincoln University;
R A Carran, AgResearch Grasslands; M Hubbard, Massey University;
S Lambie, Landcare Research (Massey University), Palmerston North;
D J Lowe, Waikato University; M Laffan, Soil Professionals, Australia;
M Taylor, Landcare Research, Hamilton; G N Magesan, Ensis, Rotorua;
D Houlbrooke, Invermay Agricultural Centre, Mosgiel; R Stenger, Lincoln
Environmental, Ruakura Research Centre, Hamilton; H Barlow, Crop & Food
Research, Lincoln; A Ghani, AgResearch, Ruakura Research Centre, Hamilton
New Zealand Society of Soil Science Officers 2006–2008
President
Vice President
Past President
Secretary
Treasurer
Council
A D Mackay, AgResearch, Palmerston North
B E Clothier, HortResearch, Palmerston North
J Adams, Christchurch
P M Fraser, Crop & Food Research, Private Bag 4704, Christchurch
C A M de Klein, AgResearch, Invermay
A Hewitt, Landcare Research, Lincoln; G Magesan, Ensis, Rotorua,
R D McLenaghen, Lincoln University; L Schipper, Waikato University;
P Singleton, Environment Waikato, Hamilton; I Vogeler, HortResearch,
Palmerston North
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48

notes from the editor:
This issue of Soil News includes the first part of an article on the history of soil survey and soil
conservation in New Zealand written by Philip Tonkin. The second part will be included in the next
issue of Soil News. As an introduction Philip has written a guest editorial, thus only a few lines from
me.
We are just revamping the NZSSS Website, and will include Philip’s entire article as a pdf on the site.
For now, just a few minor changes to the contents of Soil News. We are adding a section on historic
photos. So if you have any old photographs that you would like to see distributed among your
colleagues, send them either to me or Isabelle.
We also encourage you to advertise any vacant positions in Soil News you might have at your
organisation that you would like to be filled by (local enthusiastic) soil scientists.
Iris Vogeler
editorial:
In the 19th and 20th centuries Soil Science attracted individuals of diverse backgrounds and scientific
training. However the origins of our relationship to the land and its soils go back to the beginnings of
agriculture and the accumulated knowledge of those who cultivated plants. So developed an
understanding that soils had different attributes, such as ease of cultivation and natural fertility. Maori
in Aotearoa had a well-established horticultural tradition and understanding of specific soils, recorded
by early European visitors and later incorporated into information supplied to colonial settlers. The
North Island retains evidence of the scale and sophistication of Maori horticulture.
The European colonization of the mid 19th century coincided with the time when the scientific method
was being applied to the study of soils and in particular to soil fertility in Europe. The emphasis was
on the chemical analysis of plants and soils. William Skey government analyst followed this approach
to soil investigations in the newly established Colonial laboratory. Thereafter there was an emphasis
on soil fertility with the Department of Agriculture’s Bernard Aston a dominant figure throughout the
early 1900’s. As the forests were cleared from areas, such as the central North island and farms
established, problems arose affecting the health of sheep and cattle. This led on to the familiar story of
the investigations of ill-thrift or as it became known, bush sickness.
Throughout the early 1900’s bush sickness was not the only nutritional problem to manifest itself and
many communities were suffering the affects of failing agricultural and horticultural enterprises. Many
of the unresolved problems transpired to be related to soil conditions and the deficiency or imbalance
of nutrients available to plants and animals. This led to three geologists, Hartley Ferrar, Leslie Grange
and Norman Taylor being assigned to investigate the nature and distribution of soils in areas such as
Central Otago, Northland, central North island, the King Country and Taranaki. Ferrar with previous
experience of soil investigations in Egypt became Norman Taylor’s mentor, and Leslie Grange, the
government volcanologist was diverted from his studies of geology to investigate the nature and
distribution of volcanic ash. In 1920 a young Theodore Rigg returned to New Zealand to join the
newly established Cawthron Institute in Nelson. Both Ferrar and Rigg had experience and knowledge
of developments in soil survey taking place at the time in the USA and Europe. The laboratory
established by Rigg provided the analytical facility to support the early soil surveys undertaken by the
Geological Survey. Such was the beginning of what was to become the first systematic soil surveys in
New Zealand.
Many changes have taken place since these beginnings and much has been accomplished by
successive groups of individuals, whose names will fade from our memories as time passes. It is
appropriate that we take stock of our past as we as a community of soil and land resource specialists
move into the future. Twice the survey soil and land resources came close to termination, these were
during the 1930’s depression, and in the late 1980’s when government reorganization of science led to
a significance reduction in soil survey and soil conservation staff.
49

The need for this knowledge is a clear today as at any time in the past, and the maintenance of viable
tertiary training facilities is closely linked with the demand for these scientific skills and knowledge in
the wider community. This was emphasized in the Rotorua conference last year. I hope this
contribution to our history will encourage others to compile a history of other aspects of soil science in
New Zealand. Perhaps in time this might lead to another volume to compliment the Jubilee
Reminiscence – Fifty years of soil science memories, edited by out Past President Dr John Adams. A
clear understanding of our past and those who built the foundations on which we stand is part of
seeing our way into the future.
Philip Tonkin
_____________________
Profiles of Council members who were not featured in the last issue
Guna Magesan - Ensis (M.Sc., Ph.D., MRSNZ)
I was born in a remote village in Nilgiri (Blue Mountains) district in
Tamil Nadu, India. I came to New Zealand in July 1988 for my Ph.D.
degree in soil science at Massey University, Palmerston North.
After completing the Ph.D. degree, I joined HortResearch, as a postdoctoral
fellow in 1992. After a year, I joined Landcare Research in
Hamilton as an environmental scientist. I worked there for 7 years on
different projects: land-based wastewater application, preferential flow and aquifer protection, and
pesticide movement through soils. In July 2001, I joined Forest Research (now known as Scion), as a
senior environmental scientist, and lead a group of scientists working in ‘land treatment’ research.
In 2001, I was awarded a Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Invitational
Fellowship. In 2002, I was elected the Secretary of Soil Physics Commission, International Union of
Soil Sciences (IUSS), during the World Congress of Soil Science in Bangkok, Thailand. I was the only
New Zealander to be in the list of IUSS officers. Since 2002, I have been an executive member of
New Zealand Society of Soil Science. I was invited to be on the editorial advisory board of 3
international science journals, and act as a referee for 14 international journals.
I have published a significant number of papers in international journals. I have been invited to a
number of international conferences to present papers (including keynote address), to write book
chapters, and review papers, and to co-edit a book on ‘Urban waste management in Australasia-Pacific
region’. My contribution to scientific literature is more than 180 journal publications and conference
presentations.
Community and social work:
I am actively involved in social and community projects such as youth development, tree planting, and
organizing Indian youth festivals to build links between the Indian community and other New
Zealanders.
As the national coordinator of the Hindu Council of New Zealand, I organised many programmes for
Hamilton and Rotorua community, and started an annual tree planting programme for the Indian
community. I was awarded a ‘recognition medal’ from the Mayor of Hamilton City for my
contribution. I was also invited to be a member of the Board of Trustee of Multicultural Services Trust
and the Indigo Festival Trust: both Trusts are formed by Hamilton city council. I published booklets
on Indian culture on both occasions, and also helped to release a book on “Indo-Maori cultures”. My
work for the Hindu community in New Zealand was recognised by the World Hindu Council, a
worldwide Hindu organisation dedicated to humanitarian work, who invited me to become a member
of Board of Trustees (2003-2006).
I believe in the Vedic principle of Vasudaiva Kutumbakam (The world is one large family).
50

Alan Hewitt - Landcare Research
I love soils – especially the complete entities out there in the field. I came to
this happy state out of geology and chemistry during a very enjoyable year at
Lincoln Uni. way back in ’73. Starting in soil survey with DSIR Soil Bureau
in Otago I relished the challenge of understanding how landscapes worked and
how to predict soil properties by reading the land surface clues - and without
digging too many holes. A PhD followed at Cornell returning home to develop
the NZ Soil Classification.
I have worked and published in many aspects of soil science including land
evaluation, soil quality, carbon dynamics, erosion, environmental risk
analysis, data modeling, and latterly databases. A current focus is to provide
better national coverage of soil information, centered on the S-map project. In travels about NZ I am
constantly appalled at the profound levels of ignorance about soil. We must do better in making soils
understandable and knowledge about soil and its services more accessible.
I work at Landcare Research at Lincoln as a Research Leader and live at Rolleston with Liz on an acre
of non-high-class soil. My acre keeps me busy mowing the stones, and irrigating. I also paint
landscapes and portraits and stretch to painting soil profiles, even using soil as a painting medium.
Roger McLenaghen - Lincoln University
I started my career in soil science at Lincoln College, as it was then named, as
a Laboratory Technician way back in 1974. At that time I was working for
the late Terry Ludecke with Prof Walker as head of Department. My
technical training was from Christchurch Polytechnic were I completed an
NZCS in chemistry. Some of the Postgraduate students I worked with in
those early days were Bill Risk, Phil Hart and Stuart Ledgard.
Once I completed the NZCS I was fortunate to be able to further my studies
and completed a number of Lincoln degree papers, cumulating to a PG Dip
Agric Sc in 1990. During this period I was appointed Tutor in Soil Science.
A role I continue to this day. As tutor I am responsible all of the diploma and undergraduate soil
science laboratories. I also lecture to the diploma students.
I consider myself as a generalist as I teach into a wide range of soil science topics. Currently my main
research focus has been on the use of green manure crops, working with postgraduate students and
Leo Condron.
___________
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Vince Neall – Massey University
The Chair of the Organising Committee for the Joint Australian and
New Zealand Soil Science Society’s Conference in December 2008 is
Vince Neall. He is Professor in Earth Science at Massey University,
having centred his research career around the pedological/geological
interface. He first took Pedology as part of his undergraduate degree in
Geology and Zoology at Victoria University under the guidance of
Colin Vucetich, during the first year Pedology was offered as an
undergraduate paper in 1966. He then did BSc(Hons) in Geology and
spent six months with Antarctic Division of DSIR, mapping the
geology of the Rennick Glacier/Bowers Mountains area of Northern
Victoria Land. He was then offered a Junior Lectureship at VUW and
enrolled for a PhD. Vince’s PhD thesis was entitled “Some aspects of the Pedology and Geology of
Western Taranaki”; it involved mapping and dating tephras, lahars and volcanic debris-avalanches that
had not been previously identified, as well as conducting an element cycling study on young Coriaria
ecosystems at 1200m altitude on the northwestern flank of Mt. Taranaki/Egmont.
On completion of his PhD Vince was offered a Lectureship in Soil Science at Massey University in
1973. Initially he taught with Jim Pollok the Pedology paper and helped out with the third year
teaching. Before long he has invited to create an Earth Science programme at Massey, within the BSc
degree, which began producing graduates in 1978. This provided the Department with an essential
supply of postgraduates, who went on to take the BScHonours and MSc programmes in Earth Science
and Soil Science. Vince was also very much involved in the creation of the Graduate Diploma and
MA in Emergency Management at Massey. Over his time Vince has been Chief Supervisor to 13
PhDs, 5 Masterates and numerous BSc(Hons.) dissertations. His research interests have ranged from
meteorites to marine cores, but his central focus has been on volcaniclastics, volcanic soils and
volcanic hazards.
Over the years Vince was the first chair of the Egmont Volcano Scientific Advisory Group established
by the Taranaki Regional Council. He has been a member of the Ruapehu Crater Lake Scientific
Advisory Panel to the Minister of Conservation. He has been a member of New Zealand’s UNESCO
National Science Subcommission and joined the New Zealand delegation to the World Science
Congress in Budapest in 1999. He was awarded a Fulbright Research Scholarship to the United States
in 1979-1980 when he worked with Pete Birkeland at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and
Rocky Crandell and Don Mullineaux of the Volcanic Hazards team at the U.S. Geological Survey in
Denver. It was fitting that Mt St Helens erupted as the Neall family were half way across the Pacific
on their return journey home.
Over the years Vince has been elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of America in 1991, and a
Fellow of our own Society in 1995. He was awarded a New Zealand Science and Technology Medal
in 1997, along with an Environmental Award from the Taranaki Regional Council. In 2000 he was the
Society’s Norman Taylor Lecturer.
In recent years Vince has been working in New Britain, Papua New Guinea, with Robin Torrence, an
archaeologist with the Australian Museum in Sydney. They have been investigating artefacts and
manuports in volcanic ash beds extending back 40,000 years. The changing nature of the active
tectonic environment with major earthquakes, uplift and a number of plinian volcanic eruptions,
during which people were living there, has been one of the fascinating highlights of his career.
Vince is ably supported by Jacqueline Rowarth, Professor of Pastoral Agriculture at Massey
University, who has recently returned from Australia, and has agreed to take over the Secretarial
duties for the Conference. Committee members include Brent Clothier (HortResearch), Alison Collins
(Landcare Research), Grant Cooper (Horizons Regional Council), Lance Currie (Massey), Alec
Mackay (AgResearch), and Sarah Siebert (Massey).
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Obituary
Ken Lee – zoologist, soil scientist, scholar
(1927–2007)
“To help in the solving of New Zealand’s soil problems –
important alike to agriculture and forestry – a biology division
was established with the Soil Bureau, DSIR, in 1947. Its
purpose was the study of biological properties of our soils and
the part living organisms played in soil processes.”
Ken in Nov 2006 (Christina Lee)
Among the group Norman Taylor brought together to form that ‘biology section’ was Ken Lee. Ken
Lee met those aims. He was a significant figure in soil science and his career had a notable impact on
soil zoology, especially the study of earthworms, in New Zealand, in Australia and globally.
Kenneth Ernest Lee was born in Wanganui and had his schooling in Masterton. After a brief period
working for Levin and Company he enrolled at Victoria University College. In 1948 he joined Soil
Bureau and was among the first on the Taita site. Over the next 10 years he completed a monographic
study of the earthworms of New Zealand, and was awarded a D.Sc. for his account of the 178 native
and 14 introduced species. About a sixth of the monograph concerns distributions within New
Zealand, relationships of the New Zealand fauna, and relationships between earthworms, soils and soil
properties. While global knowledge of earthworm taxa and distribution has developed since 1959 the
theses advanced in DSIR Bulletin 130 still form the basis of our understanding of the relations between
earthworms and soils. Just one native earthworm species has since been added to the New Zealand
fauna!
Ken was on the ground floor when both the New Zealand Society of Soil Science and New Zealand
Ecological Society were formed. He was also active in other societies in the Wellington area and was
awarded the New Zealand Association of Scientists Research Medal in 1959. Ken served on the
council of the Ecological Society (1951–1962), was its President (1962–1964), and was made an
honorary life member in 1965. His publications included ‘popular’ accounts of earthworms and soil
biology for schools.
Having developed a mobile laboratory with multiple Tullgren funnels, in autumn (March to May)
1960, Ken made an epic trip sampling 45 reference soils throughout New Zealand. Sampling
proceeded from south to north, following the changing season. Sampling and analysis were as good as
conditions allowed, eight 2.5-inch diameter cores being collected from each soil and extracted en
route. This suite of samples was the basis of his remarkable ‘preliminary survey’ of New Zealand soil
invertebrates reported in Soils of New Zealand – another thorough analysis.
A Nuffield Foundation Dominion Travelling Fellowship in Natural Science (August 1961–October
1962) allowed Ken, his wife Norma, and their three children, to visit Europe, travelling on the P&O
liner SS Canberra. Ken worked at the British Museum (Natural History), at the University of
Nottingham School of Agriculture, and at the Molslaboratoriet, and visited other labs examining
earthworms, mites and enchytraeids, and getting insights into emerging methods for studying the
ecology of soil animals. His links with ISSS began when he attended the colloquium on relationships
between soil animals and soil micro-organisms at Oosterbeek, in September 1962.
In mid-1965 Ken accepted an invitation from E.G. Hallsworth, formerly of Nottingham, and moved to
CSIRO Division of Soils, Adelaide, where he established a soil zoology group. Tom Wood also
moved from DSIR to CSIRO, and together they carried out extensive work on termites in the arid
continent, setting benchmarks of research quality by quantifying relations between termites and soil
processes. Their book Termites and soils continues to be widely quoted.
Ken’s membership of the Royal Society Solomon Islands Expedition in 1965 not only extended the
range of ecosystems with which he was familiar but also led to his leading the 1971 Royal Society –
53

Percy Sladen Expedition to the New Hebrides. This expedition was highly successful: samples for
selected biological analyses made their way to Taita; the New Hebrides issued a commemorative set
of postage stamps; and the results were brought together in a symposium held by the Royal Society in
London. One of his recommendations was the establishment of a reserve for the Kauri tree (Agathis
macrophylla), which was fast disappearing from the Pacific Islands. It was very satisfying that the, by
then, independent country of Vanuatu actually established that reserve in the late 1980s.
The Division of Soils provided an excellent base for soil zoology and their faith in Ken was rewarded.
Apparently staff were rather awed that the Division hired someone with a D.Sc. While support for soil
zoology fluctuated somewhat, and ideas of a base in Townsville for significant work on tropical soils
waned, Ken maintained a steady, indeed a strong, hand with his support for good soil science. Work
moved more towards his first love, earthworms. His seminal book on earthworms, while highly
relevant to his work and of great intellectual standing, was written at home ‘after hours’ – an
illustration of how his family supported his science.
Ken was a truly international scientist. His expeditions to the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu have been
mentioned. He also led a Division of Soils delegation to China for 6 weeks in 1982, long before
everyone started going there. He was also prepared to put in the hard yards for his profession, his
colleagues and younger scientists. He served in various positions in the International Soil Science
Society from 1962, including several as Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Secretary over the period from
1964 until 1990 and was also a keynote speaker at two World Soils Congresses.
Ken with arthropod extraction gear in new (Taylor) building
at Taita, 1963 [SB6517]
In addition to early recognition in New Zealand, he received many honours for his work, including
Fellowship of the Explorer Club of New York in 1979, the Vercoe Medal of the Royal Society of
South Australia in 1985, and the Prescott Medal of the Australian Society of Soil Science in 1986. The
latter two are those societies’ premier awards.
A preliminary list of Ken’s publications contains well over 50 papers from a wide variety of sources.
Such a measure, however, does not recognise his vast contribution to zoology, soil science and
scholarship through his influence on so many scientists in many countries around the world. For the
Australasian soil science community we give but five examples of his publications:
Lee, K.E. 1959: The earthworm fauna of New Zealand. NZ DSIR Bulletin 130. 485 p.
Lee, K.E. 1968: A preliminary study of soil animals and their relationships to some New Zealand
soils. New Zealand Soil Bureau Bulletin 26(2): 168–183. (Soils of New Zealand)
Lee, K.E.; Wood, T.G. 1971: Termites and soils. Academic Press, London. 251 p.
Lee. K.E. 1983: Soil animals and pedological processes. In: Soils: an Australian viewpoint, pp. 629–
644. CSIRO, Melbourne.
Lee, K.E. 1985: Earthworms: their ecology and relationships with soils and land use. Academic
Press, Sydney. 411 p.
While Charles Darwin’s 1881 book The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms
first documented the importance of earthworms and launched soil biology, it was Ken Lee who
developed knowledge about earthworms, their ecology and relationship with soils and land use,
making masterful contributions to soil zoology and to the understanding of the importance of
54

iological contributions to soil processes on the global 20 th -century scene. To quote from the Avantpropos
written by Marcel Bouche for Ken’s 1985 book, “The work of K. E. Lee, which for the first
time places earthworms on a world-wide scale in the economy of nature and humanity, takes up again
a century later, in modern terms, the message of the great naturalist. By its critical analysis, its
synthetic approach and its opening up of all relevant subjects that are accessible to rigorous
understanding, this volume of K. E. Lee takes its place as the direct descendant of that of Charles
Darwin”.
Ken was a natural leader and held the positions of Deputy Chief of the Soils Division and Officer-in-
Charge of its Adelaide Laboratory in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Most unusually for one in such a
position, he was both respected and liked by the staff because of the consideration and fairness he
showed to all staff members. From his early days until his death, furthermore, he was happy to ‘muck
in’. At his funeral in Adelaide, his family recalled how he took charge of (i.e. did) the cooking for the
family after his wife Norma had cooked for the first 25 years of their marriage. He also did the
shopping for the family meals. And he built the garage at their Adelaide home. All of this he did with
enthusiasm, imagination, and love. By the same token, Rick Jackson has recalled in a recent email that
when the Soil Bureau moved to Taita from Molesworth Street, Ken was responsible for building the
weirs. This was under Norman Taylor’s directorial approach whereby specialists got involved in
practical tasks relating to others specialist fields, thus enhancing understanding and opportunities for
collaboration. When Rick had to carry out hydrological calculations in later years he found that Ken
had constructed weirs that did not leak. Not many leading biologists can claim that particular
distinction!
Ken Lee devoted his life and intellect to science. He had great physical and scientific stature, and his
contributions to the study of earthworms and to soil science are recognised and valued around the
world. His family, and those who helped him in his science, can be proud of him. We are better off for
his life.
Gregor Yeates, Palmerston North, NZ
Jock Churchman, Adelaide, SA
Obituary - Colin Vucetich
Many soil science society members will have very fond memories
of Colin Vucetich who died at Wellington Hospital on 25 April
2007, aged 88. Colin worked at the ex-Soil Bureau and Victoria
University. Colin Vucetich and Alan Pullar mapped soils in
different parts of the North Island, and recognised that soils around
Rotorua, Gisborne and Whakatne were formed on volcanic ash
layers, which were often well
exposed in road cuttings. Their
work has been the foundation for
later volcanological studies.
The funeral notice included the line “May you find the ultimate road
cutting".
55

articles
Soil Biology: A Core New Zealand business
by Professor Jacqueline Rowarth, Institute of Natural Resources,
Massey University
(this article appeared in National Business Review on 27th April,
under the title: “Answer to Productivity Question Lies in the soil.”)
It is something of a conundrum that at the same time as New Zealand is being goaded by Government
to achieve ever greater productivity whilst also becoming carbon neutral, the OECD’s ‘Environmental
Performance Review of New Zealand’, released in April, urges the country to improve protection of
surface and ground waters, while making commendations on the fact that we have kept
environmentally harmful subsidies among the lowest in the OECD in the agriculture and fisheries
sectors. The latter is a tremendous feat, yet has received little public recognition, and few plaudits in
the media.
Over the past 25 years, both the population and the economy have increased. It is the agricultural
sector that has been the feeder of the population and the driver of productivity gains, growing on
average by 3.6 percent per annum compared with 2.5 percent for the New Zealand economy as a
whole. The gains have been achieved with increased mechanisation (and so reduced labour), and the
use of agricultural chemicals – pesticides and fertilisers. But as the OECD praises the land and sea
managers, and some of us praise the scientists who have produced the research that has allowed this
achievement, the national eye must be to the future.
To achieve more, and to regain leadership in sustainable production systems, we must understand
more about the system we are managing; that system is based on the soil.
More specifically, if we want to understand and know more about how to mitigate pollutants and
pesticides, and the pros and cons of different production systems (including no-till, organic and
conventional), we must understand more about soil biology.
Soil biology remains one of those frontiers into which we have yet ‘to boldly go where no man, etc….’
(with apologies to StarTrek, which managed to offend both grammarians and feminists in one hit). Yet
soil biology drives nutrient availability (through decomposition, mineralisation and immobilisation),
soil aggregation, and pesticide degradation. It is the mediator for biogeochemical cycling and
understanding more will allow improved efficiency of production systems in terms not only of nutrient
uptake but also of plant health through the employment of micro-organisms rather than pesticides. It
will also allow agriculture to reduce impacts on soil erosion and hence on marine environments.
The National Centre for Advanced Bio-Protection Technologies (the only Tertiary Education
Commission Centre of Research Excellence related to the New Zealand economy) held a workshop
just after Easter focussed on soil biology and latest research. The workshop involved scientists and
researchers from AgResearch, BioDiscovery, Crop and Food, ENSIS, ESR, HortResearch, LandCare,
and Lincoln and Massey Universities. Latest research results covered the spectrum from the effects on
soil biology of organics v conventional production systems, through elevated carbon dioxide effects,
to the changes in soil biology one might expect with decomposition of bodies; the popularity of
forensic investigation television programmes was seen to be a lever for the future in terms of both
recruitment and funding. Science leaders from Australia and Britain were invited, and their talks
56

highlighted to the New Zealand audience the difficulties we are facing. With competitive and
insufficient funding (the New Zealand expenditure is not keeping up with economic development,
inflation, or the OECD countries) our research programmes pale into insignificance beside the depth
and breadth of those from overseas. New Zealand lacks critical mass in the area, as well.
Results from overseas research can not simply be transported to New Zealand because of the unique
combination of intensive and extensive production, relatively young soils, climate, pests and diseases.
All of these, and the fact that we have an agricultural workforce keen and able to take up latest results,
are envied by those from overseas – but the research funding is not.
Professor Alison Stewart, Director of the National Centre for Advanced Bio-Protection Technologies,
in summing up the two days of discussion, made it clear that her goal will be to achieve multidisciplinary,
multi-institutional research teams. “Working together is the only way to achieve critical
mass”, she said. “The CoREs were established to achieve excellent and collaborative research – and in
the area of soil biology it is clear that the way forward will be to work with overseas laboratories as
well.”
New Zealand scientists will need to apply the techniques that have been developed overseas in this
country’s environment, but funding remains an issue. Without improved funding, it will remain
extremely difficult to train or attract new scientists. The OECD education and emigration statistics for
New Zealand speak for themselves. Science graduates (agriculture, engineering, life sciences and
physical sciences) form less than 13 % of the graduate cohort in New Zealand in comparison with 27
% in Finland and over 17 % in Britain. Furthermore, almost 25 % of New Zealand’s tertiary educated
workforce now lives overseas, in comparison with only 10 % lost from Britain.
The question for the future is how to improve environmental performance and yet maintain primary
production, so that New Zealand can continue to support the economy through sustainable production
systems. And the answer lies in the soil…
It will take stable and good funding, to attract more of the excellent researchers we need, to find it.
Land Use Capability Handbook
The Land Use Capability (LUC) classification system has been used throughout New Zealand to
assess the capacity of land for sustained productive use taking into account its physical limitations,
management requirements, and soil conservation needs. Principles of the system and examples of its
use were last published in a LUC handbook in 1974. Since then, there have been significant advances
in land management research and practices and thoughts on ways to strengthen the definitions of some
parts of the classification. The system is used primarily by a number of regional authorities, but also
by other agencies and various consultants involved in farm planning/mapping and sustainable land use
practices.
A project to update the LUC handbook has commenced. It builds on a widely recognised and
established foundation of capability assessment, intellectual knowledge and practical application, and
it will help advance efficient and effective land management. The project is funded by Envirolink
(FRST) to December 2008 and comprises a science team with staff from AgResearch, Landcare
Research, and the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, who will work closely with key land
management staff in regional councils to ensure that the handbook produced is practically useful and
relevant. An electronic version of the new manual is also planned.
The project's first workshop to define the content and format of the new handbook, to be known as the
Land Use Capability Manual, was held at the end of March, and shortly the science team will start to
implement the decisions made at the workshop.
Grant Douglas
AgResearch Grasslands
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New Zealand Society of Soil Science Archives
All groups, whether scientific, community, sporting or cultural accumulate a lot of what is often called
institutional memory.
Some of this is in the memory of older members and unless preserved in a written or oral archive is
lost when those members pass on. Recently, Phil Tonkin has taken it on himself to record some of the
history of soil survey and soil conservation in New Zealand. This will be published in Soil News over
the next few issues and will provide a lasting record of an important period in the history of soil
science in this country. I recommend it to all of you who were part of that era or who are interested in
that part of where we came from as it were.
For many years, the records of the New Zealand Society of Soil Science were held at the NZ Soil
Bureau in Taita. When Taita closed in the 1990’s, much of the administration of the society moved to
Lincoln and Ron McLaren, who was President at that time, had the foresight to offer to house the Soil
Bureau soil monolith collection together with the records of our society – the New Zealand Society of
Soil Science Archives.
This is a rather grand name for a mixed collection of material which is stored at Lincoln University in
a locked, secure and dry store room, partly on shelves and partly in a variety of cartons. The main part
of the archive is a full set of New Zealand Soil News, part of which is bound into individual year
volumes. Council agreed at its recent meeting in Palmerston North to undertake the binding of the
unbound Soil News volumes and this will happen soon.
We also have the minute books of the society. I had the opportunity of looking at these while
preparing the volume of reminiscences for the 2002 Jubilee conference in Wellington. They provide a
fascinating look at the early days of the society and will be invaluable if a history of the society is ever
written.
Also there are papers which some past Council members appear to have sent to Lincoln for safe
keeping. These papers are unsorted but they may well constitute a valuable resource for future
historians. Could I suggest that any ex-Council members who have old papers relating to NZSSS
business that they have kept and don’t know what to do with consider sending them to me for adding
to the archive. My address is John Adams 113A Totara Street Riccarton Christchurch 8041.
John Adams
New Zealand School of Forestry
University of Canterbury
A typical gathering of Pedologists around a soil pit. Soil Bureau Rotorua conference 1978. From the left
(standing) G. Beecroft, M. Leamy, J. Bruce, T. Cox, G. Orbell (with Soil Taxonomy manual), V. Neall, N.
O’Byrne, B. Trangmar, M. Laffan, ? , ? , A, Hewitt. Photo supplied by T. Webb. Copyright
Landcare Research Ltd.
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A history of soil survey and selected aspects of
soil conservation in New Zealand
Part one
Dr P.J. Tonkin
Senior Fellow
Department of Geological Science
University of Canterbury.
Email
The gardeners from the Pacific
Maori migrated from tropical Oceania to temperate Aotearoa where their gardeners had to discover
soils suited to growing kumara, taro, yam, and gourd. Some soils were modified to improve growing
conditions. Northern areas had familiar reddish brown soils formed on weathered volcanic ash and
scoria and volcanic rocks. Fertile and well-drained soils on flat to rolling country were of great
importance. Elsden Best lists Maori names used to distinguish soils emphasizing soil colour and
texture, soil fertility, ease of cultivation and drainage conditions. Examples are: Tuatara wawata
(brown friable fertile, suitable for kumara), One paraumu (very dark fertile friable), One kura (reddish
poor), Kerematua (stiff clay) and One kopuru (wet situations).
The early colonial period
Early European visitors to New Zealand, impressed by the lush forests, assumed erroneously they
were growing on fertile soils. Dr Ernst Dieffenbach noted the geological origin of some soils in
Chatham Islands and in New Zealand. Surveyors and missionaries recorded their impressions of soils
under cultivation and by 1840 these observations were included in information for prospective
colonists. The correlation of soil fertility with vegetation size, such as in the northern kauri forests,
proved to be a fallacy leading to the adoption of specific plant indicators of soil fertility, such as puriri
trees, said to be an indicator of fertile soils developed on basaltic tuffs in North Auckland.
In the period 1840 to 1850, studies in United Kingdom and Europe of chemistry and plant nutrition,
changed the approach to soil analysis. In New Zealand Europeans with geological knowledge made
attempts to sample soils for analysis. These included Dr Ferdinand von Hochstetter when visiting
Auckland Province in 1859. A geological survey, established in Otago by James Hector during the
1860s gold rush, had a laboratory staffed by C.S. Wood and subsequently by William Skey. Hector
moved to Wellington in 1865, establishing the Colonial Museum and Laboratory with Skey as
Government analyst. Skey continued as Government analyst when he transferred to the Mines
Department in 1893.
A chemical approach to soil fertility
Skey offered free soil analyses, comparing results with standard works of the European chemist Justus
von Liebig, and in 1868 reported analyses of 33 soils, giving texture, constituents soluble in water, and
fairly complete analyses of hydrochloric acid extracts. This first was New Zealands first chemical ‘soil
survey’ and formed part of a suitability assessment of lands for European settlement. In 1900 Bernard
C. Aston was appointed to the new Chemistry Division of the Department of Agriculture located in
Wellington. He modified soil analysis in the light of an 1899 study of soils on the Taupo Plains. He
advocated a systematic soil survey of New Zealand, and between 1903 and 1906 initiated a
reconnaissance ‘flying soil survey’ combined with pot tests of soils to examine nutrient deficiencies.
His aim was to identify, but not map, the predominant soil types of a district from a consideration of
climate and surface conditions, geological origin, physical and chemical characteristics, vegetation,
and recognized economic adaptations. The soil in place, rather than in the laboratory, was Aston’s
approach. Between 1908 and 1909, he modified the chemical methods for assessing plant available
nutrients in the soil and with the co-operation of farmers, instituted a nation-wide series of soil fertility
field experiments to a set design.
The beginning of soil survey in New Zealand
In 1899 the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) established the National Cooperative
Soil Survey, the first government funded programme in the world. Initially the emphasis was on the
soils assumed geological origins and the surface soil horizon. The first soil maps in the United States
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and England were published by 1911. In New Zealand Aston, Leonard J. Wild and Hartley T. Ferrar
aware of these developments promoted the idea of establishing a soil survey. Ferrar, a geologist
arrived in New Zealand in 1920 with experience of surveying arid soils in Egypt. Wild published a soil
survey of the Wairau Plains in 1914, using symbols to the different the soils on his map but did not
delineate the unit boundaries. In 1916 he proposed a soil survey of New Zealand in which subdivisions
would be based initially on climate and geological structures, with soil analyses in 0-15 cm and 15-30
cm depth increments accompanied by a sketch of the soil profile.
Investigations into bush sickness
By 1911 Aston had published the first of a long list of studies on the chemistry of bush sickness, an
illness affecting sheep and cattle on certain areas of the pumice country and adjacent areas of the
central North Island. In 1912 an iron deficiency was thought to be the cause of bush sickness. This
began a period of scientific investigation of metabolic diseases in plants and animals, by Aston’s
group, and after 1920 by Theodore Rigg and others at the Cawthron Institute in Nelson. They
highlighted the need for a systematic examination and mapping of soils. Wild and Aston separately,
assessed the suitability of soils for pastures and crops by forming classes using particle size with
supporting chemical analyses of selected surface and subsurface soil samples.
Agrogeological surveys
Ferrar undertook agrogeological surveys in Northland in 1922, Central Otago in 1926 to 1928 and in
the King Country between 1928 and 1932. Norman H. Taylor was employed as a casual field assistant
on the Central Otago survey and was subsequently appointed as an assistant geologist to Ferrar on the
King County survey. In 1926 Ferrar wrote, “soils must be mapped, texture and parent material are key
factors, climate is of primary concern but geology must be the basis”. His 1929 report on the soils of
the irrigation areas in Central Otago, cites methods of soil survey developed in the United States and
he adapts their method of soil classification: “which is based primarily upon the rock or rocks from
which they are derived, and upon their mode of origin; and secondarily upon such properties as colour,
content of organic matter, natural drainage &c.” Ferrar and Aston were the first to propose the
adoption of the soil type as a soil mapping unit, where like soil types, distinguishable only on the basis
of texture, could be grouped into soil series, and at the highest level into soil provinces, as was done
by Dr Curtis F. Marbut in the National Cooperative soil survey in the United States.
Renewing the call for a national soil survey
Aston again promoted the idea of a national soil survey in 1923, suggesting soils should be identified
by locality name and texture, and that different levels of detail be employed. He undertook further
studies of the pumice soils in Rotorua County between 1926 and 1929, producing a soil map that
emphasized soil texture, and recognized some of the contrasting volcanic ash deposits. Rigg, who in
1920 was appointed as an agriculturalist at the Cawthron Institute, brought experience of soil survey
from university studies at Cambridge (UK), Cornell (USA) and elsewhere in the United States. He
introduced a technique for field soil texturing and the use of the hand auger to examine the soil profile.
Rigg and J.A. Bruce began the first systematic soil survey in New Zealand, mapping the soils of the
Waimea County in the Nelson District. The original map, dated 1922, is held in the Cawthron Institute
in Nelson and shows twenty-three soil series and forty-three texturally distinguishable soil types.
Mapping the bush sick soils
By the late 1920s there was an urgent need for a solution to the problem of bush sickness on the
volcanic pumice and ash deposits of the central North Island. Leslie I. Grange, of the New Zealand
Geological Survey, was mapping the geology of Rotorua County in the course of which he identified
and mapped a number of volcanic ash deposits. Regrouping soils, previously described by Aston and
Richard E. R. Grimmett, Grange confirmed the incidence of bush sickness on soils formed from the
Taupo and Kaharoa ash showers (pumice and ash deposits). In the King Country Taylor was able to
demonstrate a relationship between animal ill thrift and soils developed on the Mairoa ash shower in
areas of high rainfall. Taylor’s Mairoa ash shower is now regarded as a composite of many thin
volcanic ash layers. The recognition that animal ill thrift was restricted to the high rainfall areas
indicated that the process of soil leaching was significant and resulted in induced ailments in animals.
This ill thrift condition was subsequently shown to be the same as the bush sickness associated with
the Taupo and Kaharoa ash deposits of the central North Island. The studies of Grange and Taylor
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heralded the beginning of soil survey in what was to subsequently become the Department of
Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR).
Reorganization of science to form the DSIR
Government science was reorganized in 1926, with Dr Ernest Marsden appointed Secretary to the
Council and Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR). The Geological Survey and
Dominion Laboratory were incorporated into the new department but Astons laboratory remained in
the Department of Agriculture. Rigg who was a Council member between 1926 and 1954, facilitated
collaboration between the Cawthron Institute and the early soil surveys undertaken by geologists of
the DSIR Geological Survey Division.
Introducing a new soil paradigm
Rigg attended the First International Soil Congress in Washington in 1927, and returned to New
Zealand with new insights into soil classification based on the climate, geology, texture and chemical
composition. He emphasized that the soil profile should be examined and recorded to the depth of the
parent rock. Prior to this, the soil was commonly regarded as only the organic darkened surface A
horizon. By 1906, soil surveyors in the United States had a procedure for finding and mapping soil
boundaries that required a large number of systematic borings using a soil auger, with interpolation
between locations. This was refined and by 1914 instructions acknowledged that soil surveyors might
use landscape features to map soils, in addition to the knowledge of vegetation, parent material and the
climate. In his 1928 report on the Soil Congress, Rigg described the Russian concept of soil zonality
as expressed in Professor K. D. Glinka’s concept of soil geography, a development of the earlier
Russian studies of Professor V. V. Dokuchaev. Dr Marbut introduced these ideas into the United
States cooperative soil survey between 1916 and 1920, and in 1927 published an English translation of
Professor Glinka’s German text, making it more widely available. The arrival of this book in New
Zealand created a paradigm shift, setting Grange and Taylor along a new pathway of soil
investigation. No longer were soils the single unchanging product of a geological substrate but were
over time modified by weathering and leaching processes under the influence of climate and the biota.
Hans Jennys Factors of Soil Formation created a similar impact when it was published in 1941.
Extending the reconnaissance
In 1930 the Council of DSIR asked Rigg, Grange and Taylor to undertake a reconnaissance soil survey
of the volcanic areas of the central North Island with the purpose of identifying the relationship
between soil conditions and bush sickness. Analysis of soil samples was done at the Cawthron
Institute, being the only suitable laboratory at the time, under the direction of Rigg with the assistance
of A. R. Sim and L. Hodgson, and after 1931 Elsa B. Kidson. In 1933 Dr J. Keith Dixon was in charge
of this laboratory with assistants A.C. Harris, Alan. J. Metson and J. T. Corder. Dr Dixon, Metson and
Kidson were seconded from the DSIR. The earlier reconnaissance soil survey had identified soils
formed on eight distinct volcanic ash showers and confirmed the incidence of bush sickness on soils
developed in the Taupo and Kaharoa ash showers, and in a related study on the more strongly leached
soils formed on the (composite) Mairoa ash shower. It was apparent that in the weakly-weathered
Taupo and Kaharoa ashes the incidence of bush sickness was related to the initial properties of the
parent material whereas, in the more leached Mairoa ashes it was more likely to be induced by soil
processes of weathering and leaching under the influence of a high rainfall. This was a big step
forward, as it recognized soil-forming processes leading to the development and differentiation soils.
Correcting cobalt deficiency in soils
Following studies in south Australia on animal ailments, it was realized that bush sickness was caused
by a cobalt deficiency. A palliative treatment with limonite was successful, because of the presence of
trace amounts of cobalt. Dr Henry O. Askew and Rigg investigated similar symptoms to bush sickness
in animals at Glenhope near Nelson and related it to soils developed on weathered granite. A similar
ailment named Morton Mains disease in Southland was associated with leached soils formed in loess.
In the late 1930s Drs Askew and Dixon demonstrated that Glenhope and Morton Mains diseases were
also caused by a deficiency of cobalt in pastures and soils. These early soil surveys played a key role
in the investigations of bush sickness and related diseases and subsequently in the identification of
other mineral deficiencies in soils.
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Studying soil formation
In 1933 Taylor published a study of soils formed in the Mairoa ash shower. He emphasized the soil as
a natural unit comprising topsoil and subsoil, identified the layered nature and origin of the volcanic
ashes, recognized the effect of rainfall and vegetation to form podzols and yellow-brown loams on the
same parent material, and with the aid of Frederick T. Seelye confirmed the presence of the clays
allophane, halloysite and gibbsite. Taylors contributions, together with those of Rigg, and Drs Grange
and Dixon, brought New Zealand into the modern era of soil science. The success of the soil surveys,
in combination with field based soil fertility experiments, meant that farms previously abandoned were
successfully settled and pasture and animal nutrition managed and improved.
Soil surveys nearly ended in the 1930s depression
Following their success, Dr Grange and Taylor were in demand reporting on land blocks designated
for farm settlement, including the Maori Land development schemes promoted by Hon. Sir Apirana T.
Ngata and inaugurated in 1931. The 1932 depression slowed down land development and the requests
for soil surveys. Dr Marsden had to approach the then Prime Minister Rt. Hon George Forbes to gain a
three-month delay in winding up the soil survey whilst he sought support from private firms and
requested funds from the Empire Marketing Board to continue the soil reconnaissance. From the
outset soil surveys had been closely associated with the identification of areas of nutrient and trace
element deficiency that could then be treated with the appropriate use of fertilizers.
Soil survey in DSIR Geological Survey
In 1933 a Soil Survey section was formally established in the DSIR Geological Survey with Dr
Grange as officer-in-charge. In the same year Dr Grange and Taylor completed a reconnaissance soil
map of Western Taranaki that was part of a regional study of soil fertility. In addition they began a
survey of Waipa County in the Waikato, which was completed by 1935. The Waikato was an area of
established farms with a history of topdressing. Dr Grange, Taylor and Charles F. Sutherland,
established methods for detailed soil mapping, and the resulting bulletin including large-scale soil
maps constituted a milestone in New Zealands soil survey history, integrating an assessment of landuse,
climate, topography, geology, native vegetation, physical and chemical analyses of selected soils,
and soil moisture in relation to plant growth. The section on agricultural practice considered Maori
farming, the land war and subsequent European settlement of the Waikato, development of dairying,
crop production, pasture production and topdressing. They established a format that was to be
followed in subsequent soil surveys. In his 1935 publication on water supplies of farms and dairy
factories in the Hamilton Basin and Hauraki Lowland, Taylor expressed an understanding of the
relationship of the soils to the topography, geomorphology and sedimentary stratigraphy of the
Hamilton Basin that was not improved upon for another 30 years. The local names of the Waikato
soils became an accepted reference for farmers and researchers alike. In 1935 Dr Grange assisted by
Ken. S. Birrell of the Public Works Department conducted a survey in south Canterbury of the
Ashburton and Levels Counties. This was one of earliest irrigation schemes of the Public Works
Department. Charles. S. Harris, a graduate of Canterbury Agricultural College, undertook soil surveys
on Banks Peninsula, where harvesting of cocksfoot grass was an important local industry, at Westport
where there had been a number of earlier investigations by Aston and the Cawthron Institute on the
frustrating problems of developing West Coast pakihi lands for agriculture, and on the Wairau Plains
with Birrell. The last of these surveys was for another proposed irrigation scheme by the Public Works
Department. By 1935 the soil survey team had grown to undertake district soil surveys in Northland
and Hawkes Bay as part of more comprehensive studies of land utilization. These activities, tied
closely to land-use, kept the soil survey in existence throughout the years of the 1930s depression.
Soil Surveys of Northland and Hawkes Bay
In 1936 the Soil Survey Division became a separate branch of the DSIR with Dr Grange as Director.
Taylor and Sutherland moved to Whangarei in 1937, to be joined by A. Charles S. Wright in 1938.
Their first soil surveys were associated with the Kerikeri citrus orchards and the growing of tung trees
for oil. Dr Malcolm M. Burns was involved in the tung tree study as a plant physiologist. This was
followed by a soil and land-use study of Whangarei County. Northland turned out to be a soil paradise
of diverse geology, landforms, climate, vegetation patterns with varying degrees of disturbance and
modification, and spectacular thick regoliths developed in weathered colluvium and bedrock. This
resulted in many kinds and patterns of soils. A concept developed in Northland, was that soils forming
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on a common parent material could be arranged into development sequences. Taylor named these soil
suites. They were neither mapping units nor classification units, but were a way of ordering soils by
stage of profile development and used to great effect in designing and conducting soil fertility
experiments. The soil report on Whangarei County was never completed although moderately largescale
soil maps were published. However, many concepts were incorporated into later studies and
some soils, for example the ‘egg cup’ podzol became widely known. Soil mapping began in Hawke’s
Bay with Harry A. Hughes and others mapping the Heretaunga Plains. This survey was principally to
determine the suitability of the soils for orchards. The soils formed on young river alluvium had
differing drainage limitations and there were saline soils on areas of the former Ahuriri lagoon, an area
uplifted during the 1931 Napier earthquake. The Heretaunga survey was followed by the survey of the
soils of mid-Hawke’s Bay by Ivan J. Pohlen, Charles Harris, Harry S. Gibbs and James D. Raeside.
This survey was completed in 1939, but publication was delayed by the war until 1947. This was a
comprehensive land-use survey, used by the Department of Agriculture to locate fertilizer trials and in
addition, it identified that soil erosion was a significant problem in mid-Hawke’s Bay.
The war years and a national soil inventory
During the early war years the Soil Survey Division undertook a general survey of the North Island’s
soil resources at a map compilation scale of four miles to the inch (1:253440). This was a co-operative
project, with the Extension Division of the Department of Agriculture. The survey rapidly produced
information on the soils of unmapped areas. These were linked together with the soil surveys of the
previously mapped areas, such as the Waikato, parts of Northland, Hawke’s Bay and western
Taranaki. The three survey parties were Dr Grange, C. Harris and Gibbs in Wellington, Pohlen,
Raeside and Gibbs in Hastings, and Taylor, Sutherland and Wright in Whangarei. They started
mapping in February 1940, finished in March 1941 and provisional soil maps were drawn and printed
in 1942.
Soils were mapped as soil sets, defined as “convenient groupings of soils with like profiles or
assemblages of profiles”. A comprehensive inventory of soil chemical data formed part of the survey
together with summaries of relevant agricultural information, from which were produced a series of
single factor maps. These were used during the war years to plan and set priorities for agriculture and
horticulture production as well as the distribution of scarce fertilizers. The army used the soil maps for
logistical planning.
A number of other soil surveys were completed during the war years. Gibbs surveyed Matakoa County
on the East Cape of North Island in 1940, and between 1943 and 1945 Westland in the South Island.
From 1943 to 1945 C. Harris surveyed the soils of Ellesmere County in Canterbury and between 1943
and 1946 Raeside surveyed the soils of Geraldine County. University students who assisted with the
Geraldine survey included John D. McCraw and Douglas S. Coumbs. Ian L. Baumgart joined this
team after leaving the New Zealand army and completing his university degree. Geraldine County
survey was one of several surveys undertaken to identify areas suitable for growing linen flax, a fiber
in short supply during the war, and used in the manufacture of fabric skins for military aircraft.
Wright, prior to his enlisting in the army, was involved in Southland conducting other soil surveys for
linen flax production. Gibbs and Birrell were part of a team identifying suitable sites for military
airfields throughout New Zealand.
Soil classification and the ordering of soil survey information
In the 1940s soil classification was at a formative state in New Zealand. In the North Island general
survey, the following categories were used to arrange the soils data: Recent soils, rendzina and
associated podzolic soils, yellow grey loams, primary podzolic soils, secondary podzolic soils, yellow
brown loams, brown granular loams and clays, red brown loams, meadow (or gley) soils, organic soils,
saline soils, and skeletal soils on steep hillsides. Many of the categories were ordered into young,
immature, semimature, later semimature, submature and mature stages of development. The soils
formed on volcanic ash and sediments derived from volcanic ash, which included the primary podzolic
soils, yellow brown loams and brown granular loams and clays, were grouped into soil suites. These
were named and identified by the soil-forming volcanic ashes previously defined by Grange and
Taylor such as the Taupo, Mairoa and Tirau suites. The skeletal soils included a diverse collection of
soils on steep hill country that were either unoccupied rangeland, native forests or unsuited to semiintensive
farming at the time.
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By the mid 1940s Taylor had formalized three classes of soil survey; general (soil sets, map scale 4
miles to 1 inch), district (showing more detail with patterns of soil types and map scales of 2 miles to 1
inch), and detailed (showing the soil pattern in relation to farm subdivision boundaries at map scale of
40 chains to 1 inch).
Soil erosion and soil conservation
The late 1930s and early 1940s was a period of growing concern about the widespread occurrence of
erosion and flooding. Local engineering responses, using stop banks, were early measures used to
mitigate the effects of flooding. In the North Island the floods were regarded as a consequence of the
original forests having been felled for timber or simply burnt in the conversion of lands to pastoral
agriculture. Guthrie Smith at Tutira in Northern Hawke’s Bay documented these changes, and in 1938
Taylor directed attention to land deterioration in the heavier rainfall districts of New Zealand. Others
engaged in raising public awareness at this time were Dr Kenneth B. Cumberland, Lancelot W.
McCaskill and Douglas A. Campbell. The message was reinforced by the 1938 Esk Flood in Northern
Hawke’s Bay, clearly demonstrating the link between catchment conditions, flooding and sediment
deposition on flood plains. The political response was a Committee of Enquiry into the Maintenance
of Vegetative Cover in New Zealand with special reference to Land Erosion, chaired by Taylor.
Subsequently the Parliament passed the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Act of 1941,
establishing the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Council (SC&RC) and catchment authorities.
In the early 1940s Dr Grange wanted to put soil erosion research on a sound footing, initiating a
reconnaissance survey of soil erosion in the high country of the South Island by Gibbs and Raeside.
This was followed by an assessment of soil erosion in the southern half of the North Island by Dr
Grange and Gibbs, a study of soil erosion on loess downlands in Geraldine County in South
Canterbury by Raeside and Baumgart, and a study of soil erosion on the Wither Hills in Marlborough
by Gibbs. In 1948 the Royal Commission on the High Country denounced Gibbs and Raesides high
country survey as anti-farming propaganda. After 1948 these soil erosion studies were discontinued
when DSIR head office declined to allocate further funding for this programme. With the wisdom of
hindsight, this was an unfortunate decision, and for years after engineers tried to carry out remedial
work without the support of adequate soil erosion research.
The history of soil conservation in New Zealand is documented from its inception to the early 1970s in
McCaskill’s book, Hold this Land. The SC&RC Council, administered the 1941 Act with the
assistance of the Public Works Department, and granted subsidies to approved proposals, submitted by
the catchment boards. Ten catchment boards had their first meeting between June 1944 and July 1945.
Some boards undertook soil conservation surveys using an adaptation of the United States Department
of Agriculture (USDA) land-use capability classification. These surveys were commonly followed by
studies of soil fertility and re-vegetation to establish erosion control, retirement of eroded lands by
fencing, and river engineering projects. In this period there were many soil conservation and flood
control schemes established, throughout New Zealand including some integrated catchment control
schemes.
Between 1944 and 1969 twenty-four soil conservation reserves were established, eleven in the South
Island, thirteen in the North Island with seventeen covering hill and high country catchments. These
were used to demonstrate soil conservation techniques that included the pioneering of aerial
topdressing and over-sowing on hill country, contour cultivation and water conservation techniques,
and methods of poplar and willow propagation and planting. The field demonstrations of conservation
techniques included assessments of the success of these measures. After 1955, soil conservation and
erosion mitigation measures on agricultural lands were executed by many of the South Island
catchment boards using conservation farm plans based on a land inventory survey and a land-use
capability plan. These plans formed a basis for the subsequent design of farm developments, so that
control of erosion was integrated into farm management operations. Farm plans were usually approved
as five yearly programs, with specific targets to be met by the farmer. These were initiated in the
period between 1956 and 1966, when the Works Departments soil conservators became advisory
officers in the Department of Agriculture. Catchment authority staff prepared many of the
conservation farm plans. The eventual adoption of an agreed conservation farm plan model by all
catchment authorities and the publication of the first Land-use Capability Handbook by the SC&RC
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council in 1969 had an important bearing on progress, enhancement of consistency and quality and the
professional development of soil conservation.
In 1956 the Forest and Range Experiment Station (FRES) of the New Zealand Forest Service was
established in the South Island at Rangiora and in the early 1960s the SC&RC council agreed to the
formation of the Tussock Grasslands and Mountainlands Institute (TGMLI) at Lincoln College. The
TGMLI had the support of the Lands and Survey Department and High Country Committee of
Federated Farmers. Both FRES and TGMLI were engaged in similar studies, albeit at different
altitudes. A consequence was the fragmentation soil erosion and remediation research between several
different government departments and ministries, and the potential synergies between the different
groups of research scientists was at times frustrated by unnecessary rivalries and administrative
conflicts persisting for several decades.
The DSIR Soil Bureau
In 1946 the Soil Survey was reorganized to form the DSIR Soil Bureau with four divisions: soil
survey, soil chemistry, soil physics and soil biology. The soil survey division under Taylors direction
was expanded by the addition of Baumgart, Colin G. Vucetich, and W. Allan Pullar – returned
servicemen; Edmund J. B. Cutler, J. Patrick Fox, and McCraw – recent graduates; and William T.
Ward, J. Desmond Cowie, Michael L. Leamy, Michael A. Poppelwell and Paul Fitzgerald – cadets
who were completing university degrees. The new soil surveyors included graduates in geology,
chemistry, botany and agriculture.
South Island district and detailed soil surveys in the post war years
The need to increase food production, in post war years, focused attention on areas that could be
irrigated. Canterbury Downs and Plains, an area of mixed cropping and lamb production was selected
and a district soil survey began in 1946, linking the previous surveys of Ellesmere, Geraldine,
Ashburton and Levels Counties. The Timaru team of Raeside, Baumgart and Pullar had a geological
orientation and tended to work from broad soil patterns to the detail. The Christchurch team of C.
Harris, Fox, Vucetich and Cutler had an agricultural orientation with a bias toward soil detail. Raeside
and C. Harris were the survey team leaders with Taylor imposing control from Wellington. Baumgart
coordinated the mapping between the two teams, first example of soil correlation in New Zealand. The
target of two years set for this survey was largely achieved, despite the limited transport arrangements
comprising bicycles and only two cars.
From 1923 farmers had lobbied government for an irrigation scheme on the Maniototo Plains.
Experience from an earlier irrigation development in the Ida Valley produced uncontrollable water
logging of some soils. A soil survey was requested and Raeside and Cutler began a detailed soil survey
in the winter of 1946 with the assistance of Pullar, Fox, Edward A. Walker and Richard D. Blackham.
The prevalence of low permeability horizons, close to the surface in many of the soils, and the
presence of soluble salts led to a recommendation that the irrigation proposal should not proceed.
In 1946 Wright was repatriated from the army and undertook soil surveys of Otago assessing the
suitability of coastal hills of Green Island and Kaitangata for forestry, followed by a reconnaissance
soil survey of Fiordland with a DSIR team that was prospecting for radioactive ores. In the 1950s
DSIR Soil Bureau staff were involved in surveys of southwest Pacific Islands. Grange and Fox
mapped the soils of the Lower Cook Group and Wright surveyed the soils of Chatham Island, Raoul
Island, Western Samoa and Niue. Fox was seconded to work with I. T. Twyford on the survey of the
soils of Fiji. Baumgart and Leamy assisted with this survey a short periods and Wright completed the
survey.
Unifying the approach to soil studies – the genetic soil classification
In 1948 Taylor produced a 1: 2, 000,000 scale soil map of New Zealand using his New Zealand
Genetic Soil Classification to organize the map legend. A proposed bulletin to accompany this map
was never completed. Taylor’s genetic soil classification grouped soils into Zonal, Intrazonal and
Azonal divisions at the highest level. This was an adaptation of the concepts developed in 1938 United
States Soil Classification. The soil classification was based on soil processes, recognizing the soil as a
dynamic system, comprising soil wasting, organic and inorganic regimes. It highlighted the degree of
weathering of soils, recognized the effect of latitudinal and altitudinal differences in climate on soil
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processes, and facilitated the study of soils as part of a coherent whole – groups, suites, sequences –
rather than as discrete individuals. The factors that Taylor incorporated into his classification were the
same that influenced plant growth. This soil classification brought a sense of order and structure to soil
investigations, largely because it was simple in concept and easily understood by soil scientists,
agriculturalists and others involved in the primary industries. In the following years significant
advances were accomplished in areas of soil chemistry, mineralogy and biology. Trial sites for the
field investigation of soil fertility were selected on the basis the new soil classification.
Completing the national soil inventory - South Island general soil survey
In 1948, Gibbs undertook a general survey of a substantive part of Marlborough covering a large area
of hill and mountain lands. This was followed by the general survey of the soils of the South Island
with teams working from Christchurch that included C. Harris, Fox, and Vucetich, and from Timaru
that included Raeside, Cutler, Pullar and McCraw. The precedent of the North Island general soil
survey was followed and mapping of soil sets at a map scale of 4 miles to 1 inch began in areas where
there was no previous information. Data on areas where there was earlier coverage, including soil
surveys by Eric T. Chittenden at Cawthron Institute in Nelson, were compiled from published and
unpublished records. Conflicting demands on the small team of pedologists resulted in the South
Island general soil survey taking longer to complete than the North Island counterpart. A provisional
series of maps and extended legends was issued, on a restricted basis, in 1959 and edited maps and
bulletin printed between 1964 and 1966. The South Island general survey completed coverage of the
two main islands of New Zealand, giving an overall picture of the soil pattern. This provided
information for planning of research into soil problems affecting land-use, and provided a basis for
research and management of soil macro and micronutrients. As with the North Island survey, the maps
were suited as a basis for preparing single factor maps. In addition to the general survey, catchment
boards engaged McCraw in Otago and Vucetich in North Canterbury, to survey the soils of selected
high country catchments as part of investigations of the extent of soil erosion and its mitigation.
Moving on from the general soil survey
In 1948 the mapping for the general survey soils of the South Island was nearing completion and
members of the survey team were moved on to open up new survey offices. After two years in
Washington as a liaison officer, Raeside returned to the Dunedin office that Cutler had opened in
1950. Cutler continued with the compilation of the general survey of the South Island as well as other
soil surveys in Otago and Southland regions, such as the mapping of the soils on lower Clutha
floodplain.
Pullar moved to Gisborne to begin a detailed survey of the agriculturally rich lands of the Gisborne
Plains, a survey that was later recognized as a fine piece of detailed mapping, taking the best part of a
decade to complete. This survey was used to plan and manage intensive processed-vegetable cropping
and later viticulture in the region. Pullar used the Gisborne soil survey, together with the age control
provided by volcanic ash layers (tephras) interbedded with floodplain sediments, to interpret the late
Holocene history of accretion of the Gisborne plains and coastal sand dunes.
Vucetich moved to Rotorua joining Baumgart on soil surveys covering the land development blocks
and forests throughout the Taupo, Waiotapu, Kaingaroa and Reporoa districts of the central North
Island. At various times throughout the 1950s Edward F. Stokes, Derek Cross, Cowie, Leamy and
Poppelwell assisted in these soil surveys. The distribution patterns of late Holocene tephras and the
tephra sequences (tephrostratigraphy) were a major determinant of the soil pattern, and buried soils
were shown to have a significant effect on pine tree nutrition by Graham Will of the New Zealand
Forest Service.
A consequence of Pullar and Vucetich mapping soils developed in volcani-clastic sediments and
tephras was the need to recognise and understand the tephra stratigraphy resulting from successive
volcanic eruptions in the central North Island. Despite the disapproval of the DSIR Soil Bureau
establishment, they followed up the pioneering work begun by Grange and Taylor, refined by
Baumgart and, forming a team with James Healy of the DSIR Geological Survey, produced a seminal
bulletin on the tephra stratigraphy of the central North Island in 1964. The soil-forming volcanic
ashes, with names such as Mairoa, Tirau, and Gisborne ashes were distal composite tephra columns
made of many thin additions of dominantly rhyolitic with lesser additions of andesitic volcanic ashes.
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McCraw moved to Alexandra to initially begin soil surveys of existing and potential fruit growing
areas of Central Otago from Cromwell to Roxburgh. These were to be followed by irrigation surveys.
The Alexandra office grew with the addition successively of Cowie, Ward, Leamy and lastly Gary
Orbell. By the early 1960s these pedologists had mapped the soils of the Alexandra District, and the
Ida, Upper Clutha and mid Manuherikia valleys. These were areas where irrigation was the key to
pastoral and horticultural development of the dry basin floors.
Cowie was briefly in Foxton before establishing the soil survey office in Palmerston North with
Fitzgerald as his assistant. Together they surveyed the Manawatu sand country, recognizing a
topographically consistent soil pattern, referred to as soil associations. The soils on dunes and sand
plains differentiated the progradational Manawatu sand plain into successively older, but overlapping
Holocene dunes systems. In a career, the bulk of which was spent in the Manawatu, Cowie built-up a
comprehensive knowledge of the soils and their varied uses for horticulture and agriculture. Like
Pullar in Gisborne, he was able to use his knowledge of the soils to interpret the evolution of the
Rangitikei and Manawatu floodplains and of the many smaller rivers between. The presence of a
widespread tephra layer interbedded with silty coverbeds on the Manawatu downlands was the key to
recognizing loess, for the first time in the North Island. In the late 1950s Cowie, Brian Kear and Orbell
mapped the soils of Kairanga Count an area of the Manawatu downlands comprising small
floodplains, and terraces and floodplains of the major rivers, bordering the eastern side of the main
ranges. This survey further developed the idea of soil association mapping, producing cross-sectional
diagrams of landscape segments that depicted the relationship between the soil pattern, the landforms
and the underlying sediments. In the 1950s Wright moved to the Taita Research Station to establish
the soil biology section of DSIR Soil Bureau.
A new headquarters for DSIR Soil Bureau
Up until the end of the 1950s the DSIR Soil Bureau had been housed in less than adequate conditions
in a number of buildings in Wellington including the infamous 54 Molesworth Street opposite the
Parliament buildings. In 1949 Dr Grange had negotiated the acquisition of land at Taita on the eastern
side of the Hutt Valley and by 1962 the new buildings were ready for occupation. This was the first
time DSIR Soil Bureau staff, with the exception of the field offices, had been located on one site. By
the late 1950s the soil survey offices in the South Island were at Christchurch, Dunedin and
Alexandra, and those in the North Island at Whangarei, Rotorua, Palmerston North, and Gisborne,
with Gibbs the Chief Pedologist based in Wellington.
In 1962 Taylor and Pohlen published Soil Survey Method, at this time one of the most comprehensive
manuals available for soil surveyors, and the first formally published in New Zealand. It set standards
for soil description and mapping, and included the first published version of the New Zealand Genetic
Soil Classification with the common and a novel technical nomenclature. It was republished in 1968 as
part of the Soils of New Zealand volumes. The technical nomenclature was used for a time and
subsequently abandoned.
Taylor had invited the International Society of Soil Science to hold their 8th Congress in New
Zealand, but this was not acceptable to the Europeans, so he settled for an inter-congress meeting of
Commissions IV (Soil Fertility) and V (Pedology). In the years prior to this meeting, field and
laboratory staff made a New Zealand-wide collection of reference soils with descriptions, to which
were added chemical, physical and mineralogical analyses. The conference was held at Massey
University in 1962 and included field tours throughout both islands. The conference and tours were a
success, and illustrated the integration between soil survey and soil fertility, and the application of this
knowledge to agricultural, horticultural and forestry land-uses in New Zealand. It was an appropriate
culmination of Taylor’s career, as a soil surveyor and latterly as Director of DSIR Soil Bureau, from
which he retired at the end of 1962.
By this time Gibbs, Raeside, and Cutler were devoting more time to questions of land-use,
highlighting the limited areas of New Zealand soils with high versatility, producing classifications for
pastoral and cropping uses, and arguing for a limitation to urban spread on to the high value soils that
surrounded most of the New Zealand’s towns and cities. This case was well illustrated by later soil
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surveys of Christchurch, Dunedin, Palmerston North and Hamilton, where in each case the cities are
surrounded by soils suited to intensive cropping and horticultural use.
Expansion of the soil survey activity
In the 1960s the soil survey was expanded by the recruitment of New Zealand graduates, mostly with
degrees in geology, some with additional training in pedology, and a few United Kingdom graduates
with soil survey experience gained in Africa and India. In addition to the existing soil survey offices in
Dunedin, Alexandra, Christchurch, Taita and Palmerston North, new offices were opened in
Whakatane, Hamilton and Wanganui. After 1967 further offices were opened at Gore and Oamaru in
the South Island and at Whangarei in the North Island. Gibbs, as Chief Pedologist, continued to direct
the soil survey programme from Taita. At this time Gibbs exhibited a vision of what needed to be done
in the post soil reconnaissance era. A priority was the publication of completed surveys such as
Ellesmere County and the Downs and Plains Survey of Canterbury and North Otago. A number of
areas were targeted for further District soil surveys on the basis of specific soil and or economic
considerations.
The survey programme was determined partly by requests from local authorities, the Lands and
Survey Department as part of its Land Inventory Series (LIS), and the need to cover areas where no
detailed soil information was available. A number of detailed surveys were undertaken, as sample
areas of New Zealand, where the soils and their distribution were not well understood. J.G. Bruce’s
survey of Raglan County, an area of hill country where the soils were developed on tephra coverbeds
and weathered bedrock regoliths, used an adaptation of the Australian concept of land-systems to
represent the soil distribution. Iain B. Campbell surveyed Wanganui County, an area of steep dissected
hill country underlain by weak mudstones and siltstones with a patchy tephra cover on ridges and
sideslopes. In this survey he sought to improve on the conventional hill soil and steepland soil
mapping concepts previously defined by Taylor and Pohlen in their soil survey manual. J. Edward Cox
and Clem B. Mead mapped the soils of Paparua County, an area of the lower Canterbury Plains
adjacent to Christchurch City. This area of arable soils was identified as having the potential for
growing vegetable crops for processing and was within trucking distance of a planned factory. Cox
produced a detailed soil map and in the process of the survey discovered radiocarbon datable material
that enabled him to interpret the depositional history of the lower part of the Waimakariri fan and of
the soils formed on the different aged sediments. This was the first comprehensive study of a soil
landscape and its history involving radiocarbon dating in the South Island. Hugh R. Wilde undertook
an investigation of soil variability within the Westmere soils, formed in tephra and loessial coverbeds
on the coastal terraces north of Wanganui, and in collaboration with Dr John A. Adams, produced an
analysis of soil taxonomic and map unit variability. In the South Island, Elwyn Griffiths surveyed the
soils of the Waikari District in North Canterbury, an area of contrasting bedrock lithologies including
limestones, mudstones, glauconitic sediments and greywacke. The landforms comprised anticlinal
hills and synclinal basins infilled with locally derived sediments. Loess mantled some of the older
surfaces. In Southland, J.G. Bruce surveyed the soils of the Gore and Waikaka districts, an area of
rolling hills with loessial soils showing the imprint of local climatic gradients. In addition, detailed
surveys were completed of research stations in various parts of New Zealand, and of city environments
such as Christchurch, Dunedin, Palmerston North and Hamilton.
By the end of the decade the requests for soil surveys began to increase and exceed the resources
available. For example the Lands and Survey Department’s ambition to produce inch to the mile
(1:63,360) soil maps for all 120 counties in the country within 10 years was behind schedule with only
15 counties mapped by 1971. This was despite the reality that soil surveys were completed more
quickly than they were being published by the Lands and Survey Department. Other new soil surveys
included land resource surveys as part of a National Resources Survey compiled for the Ministry of
Works, Town and Country Planning Branch. Seven district soil surveys were also completed during
this decade. At this time it was not uncommon for ten years to elapse between completion of a district
survey and their publication as a printed and bound bulletin. Toward the end of the 1960s the
Alexandra office was closed and staff transferred to Dunedin. Michael Leamy led a team soil survey
of Stewart Island, comprising six pedologists and eight support staff, extending over a few weeks in
1969 and 1970 respectively. This completed the general soil survey of the three main islands of New
Zealand.
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The contribution of the Universities
Canterbury Agricultural College (later renamed Lincoln College and subsequently reconstituted as
Lincoln University) was the first university institution to teach soil science. Prior to the appointment of
Dr Burns as senior lecturer in 1937 the emphasis had been on soil chemistry and the analysis and
application of fertilizers. Wild had begun a soil survey of part of the Wairau Plains when a teacher at
Marlborough High School between 1911 and 1913. Whilst at Lincoln between 1915 and 1925, he
published Soils and Manures in New Zealand. The 1955 edition of this book included an updated
section on soils of New Zealand based on information provided by Taylor and Pohlen. Dr Burns had
gained a comprehensive knowledge of soils, soil fertility and aspects of soil conservation from his
postgraduate studies at Aberdeen and Cornell Universities. His focus was in teaching basic soil
husbandry skills to diplomate and graduate students in agriculture, establishing short courses for
returned service-men, and in 1946 initiating the first lecture course in soil conservation and soil
erosion at the college, to compliment McCaskill’s lectures on the history and practice of soil
conservation. Dr Burns resigned in 1949. McCaskill continued to offer courses in soil conservation,
until he became Director of the Tussock Grasslands and Mountainlands Institute in the early 1960s.
Brian Douglas, formerly a forester and soil conservator, was appointed in 1962 to lecture in soil
conservation. He was initially based in the Soil Science Department but subsequently transferred to
the Agricultural Engineering Department. By this time soil conservation was taught as part of a subject
entitled watershed management. Over the following decades Dr Tim Davies added courses in land and
water science and management. Dr Davies moved to the University of Canterbury in 2003 and by
2005 the emphasis had changed from soil conservation to sustainable rural land-use.
Pedology and soil survey were not emphasized in teaching until Dr Thomas W. Walker was appointed
foundation Professor of Soil Science in 1952. Pedology had been enlivened in the post war years
following the publication of Hans Jenny’s Factors of Soil Formation. Professor Walker, Arthur F.R.
Adams and Hector D. Orchiston, established a series of fertilizer trials on Canterbury soil sequences
identified by Raeside and Cutler. They applied Jenny’s concepts to the study of nutritional factors
influencing biological nitrogen fixation. In particular the influence of sulphur, phosphorus, and
molybdenum deficiencies in clover and grass pastures. These studies set a foundation for future
studies of soil nutrient limitations in soil sequences and their amendment by the use of fertilizers. In
1958 Walker resigned to become Professor of Agriculture at the University of Newcastle on Tyne
where he was influenced by a noted English pedologist Edward Crompton. Professor Walker was
reappointment to Canterbury Agricultural College in 1960. In the following two decades there were
further soil sequence studies, based on chronosequences, climosequences and lithosequences in both
South and North Islands, the first and most notable being the study of the Franz Josef chronosequence.
In the 1960s Bernard L. Elphick, previously a research officer studying the chemistry of lime and its
reaction in soils, began teaching pedology, but he had little or no field experience to call upon and
enliven the subject. Pedology and instruction in soil survey took a leap forward when Cutler brought
his twenty three years of soil survey experience to the Soil Science Department in 1967, followed by
Philip J. Tonkin in 1969 also recruited from DSIR Soil Bureau and Andrew W. Young in 1974, a
Lincoln graduate. By the 1970s the teaching programme was expanded with the advanced course in
pedology and soil survey supported by courses in earth science and geomorphology. In latter years the
emphasis changed to suit the development of additional degree programmes in resource studies and
landscape architecture, complementing existing degrees in agriculture and horticulture. Soil science
including a component of soil survey was taught principally to forestry students at Canterbury
University by Lincoln University staff. Throughout the 1960s to 1980s a number of postgraduates
were employed as soil conservators and pedologists with some completing Ph.D. degrees in New
Zealand and overseas universities. Cutler retired in 1984 to be replaced by Dr Robert Kemp who in
turn resigned in 1990 and was replaced by Peter C. Almond, a Massey graduate with soil survey
experience with DSIR Soil Bureau and the New Zealand Forest Service. Dr Tonkin retired in 2002 and
was replaced by Dr Carol Smith, a graduate of Reading and Aberdeen Universities (UK) in 2004. Drs
Tonkin, Kemp, Almond and Smith all had postgraduate training in pedology and soil survey.
Massey Agricultural College (later reconstituted as Massey University) appointed Abram W. Hudson
the first Professor of Soils and Field Husbandry in 1951, after first arriving as a lecturer in soils and
fertilisers in 1935. Professor Hudson conducted numerous long-term fertiliser and lime field trials
around the North Island, and was responsible for the establishment of the Drainage Extension Service.
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Dr Clifford V. Fife started at Massey in the late 1930s, succeeding Professor Hudson to become the
first Head of Department of Soil Science from 1961 to 1972. Dr Fife was the first to teach pedology at
Massey, at the time based principally on G.W. Robinson’s book Soils, their origin, constitution and
classification, together with teaching soil chemistry. In 1955 James A. Pollok joined the staff after
having been with the Soil Survey of England and Wales, mapping the soils of Cambridgeshire
followed by a period in the Dunedin office of DSIR Soil Bureau. Pollok was New Zealand’s first
academic pedologist with degrees from Canterbury Agricultural College, University of Minnesota,
USA, and the University of Bonn, Germany. Dr Pollok mapped the soils of Massey farms in intense
detail. Dr Vince E. Neall was appointed in 1973 from Victoria University of Wellington and given
responsibility for developing the earth science programme, which began producing graduates in 1978.
Drs Neall and Pollok were instrumental in postgraduate studies that led to the soil surveys of Egmont
County and Eltham County, Tuapaka Farm and Riverside Farm. Robert B. Stewart, a University of
Canterbury graduate in geology, joined the staff in 1977 and began specialising in soil mineralogy. In
later years he has also specialised in land rehabilitation. Dr Alan S. Palmer joined the staff in 1984,
also from Victoria University. Prior to his appointment he had conducted a reconnaissance soil survey
of part of Kahurangi National Park with staff of the Forest Research Institute, and for a short period
worked for the DSIR Soil Bureau where together with Wilde, he surveyed the soils of the Otaki
District. In recent years Dr Palmer has taken a major responsibility in teaching pedology. Two
highlights in the history of pedology in the Department were the 1962 meeting of Commissions IV and
V of the International Society of Soil Science at Massey, and the 1981 International Conference on
Soils with Variable Charge. Dermot G. Bowler was the first to teach soil conservation. He
complemented his teaching with a large aerial photo-library, much of which he had flown and
photographed. Upon his retirement Michael P. Tuohy became responsible for soil conservation
teaching, and took it into the remote sensing era.
Victoria University of Wellington taught pedology in the Geology Department from the early 1960s.
The successive appointment, of two former DSIR Soil Bureau pedologists, Dr Taylor between 1963
and 1964, and Vucetich between 1965 and 1983, greatly improved the programme. Vucetich began a
new era in the study and use of tephras in both soil and Quaternary studies, continuing research
initiated with Dr Pullar, through the work of numerous postgraduate students. Amongst these were
Tonkin, Neall and Palmer who subsequently spent most of their careers in teaching and research at
Lincoln and Massey universities. Dr Brad J Pillans, a graduate of Australian National University
(ANU), was appointed in 1983 to replace Vucetich and taught pedology from a Quaternary
perspective with an emphasis on stratigraphy, and dating. As in Vucetich’s time, the second year
pedology course also included a component on soil-plant relations that was taught by staff from
Biological Sciences, including Dr Katherine Dickinson and Dr Ross McQueen. Dr Russel Howorth
initially taught an applied geology course that included topics on the physical and geotechnical
properties of soils. In the mid 1980s this class was discontinued and the soils section was taken up by a
third year physical geography course run by Drs Michael Crozier and Jim McConchie. The material
taught formed the basis of many graduate theses relating soil properties to slope stability and erosion.
The appointment of John Bruce in 1989, formerly Chief Soil Correlator at DSIR Soil Bureau, injected
further pedological field experience. Dr James Shulmeister replaced Pillans in 1994 and with more
than half the students coming from ecology the teaching again changed with pedology taught with an
emphasis on climatology and ecology. At present soils are taught as single topics within the physical
geography undergraduate programme, and no specialised course in pedology or soil survey currently
exists. Dr Shulmeister moved to the University of Canterbury in 2001 and Bruce retired in 2002.
The University of Waikato’s Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences was first established as a
Department of Earth Sciences in 1970, within the then School of Science (now the School of Science
and Engineering). Dr McCraw, the foundation professor, had spent the previous two decades as a
pedologist and soil surveyor with DSIR Soil Bureau including the first soil survey of the Taylor Dry
Valley in the Ross Dependency, Antarctica. In establishing the department, Professor McCraw had the
assistance of Gibbs, formerly Chief Pedologist in DSIR Soil Bureau, and Michael J. Selby, a
geomorphologist (physical geographer) trained at Oxford University. Not surprisingly pedology and
geomorphology were included together with other core subjects in the undergraduate and postgraduate
Earth sciences programme. A distinctive character of the Department and School is the
continuing Antarctic research programme that was initiated in 1970 by Professor Alex T. Wilson
(Foundation Professor of Chemistry and Dean of the School of Science) and Dr Selby. The
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pedological capability of the department was enhanced with the appointment of Dr Robert F. Allbrook
in 1975, David J. Lowe in 1979, Richard Chapman in 1986, Vicki G. Moon in 1987, and Megan R.
Balks in 1988. Dr Allbrook was a graduate of Newcastle on Tyne University, and had spent a period
as a soil surveyor in Nigeria before completing his doctorate at the University of Malaya studying the
genesis of rice soils. Dr Lowe (now Associate Professor) is a graduate of the University of Waikato
where he specialises in teaching pedology and tephrostratigraphy among his many interests that
include geoarchaeology, Quaternary climate change, and volcanic-ash derived soils. Previously he had
short stints with Soil Bureau (Hamilton office), working on the Matamata County survey, and
preparing benzene in the fledgling Waikato Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory prior to his doctoral
studies. Dr Balks, a graduate of Massey and Waikato universities, was a contract employee with Soil
Bureau DSIR on soil surveys in Central Otago. Professor Gibbs retired in 1979, Professor McCraw in
1987, Dr Allbrook in 1993 and Professor Selby in 2002 (as Deputy Vice Chancellor). Pedology is
included within the mix of undergraduate training together with other subjects relevant to teaching and
research in soil geomorphology, Quaternary stratigraphy and soil and rock mechanics. In more recent
years, programmes in land evaluation including soil-landscape modelling and environmental
evaluation and resource planning have developed. Numerous post-graduate studies have included
aspects of pedology and soil survey in their geological, environmental and palaeoecological research.
Professor Selby initially worked on pumice erosion in the Taupo region using factor analysis and later
developed a geomechanics programme. He wrote five textbooks thereby helping to establish the
Department’s reputation in the surface Earth sciences. Waikato University carried out a national
survey of peat resources for National Water and Soil Conservation Authority in 1975. This survey
team was led by Professor McCraw and Dr Tony Davoren and was carried out by staff and students of
the Earth Sciences and Biological Sciences departments.
news from correspondents
Invermay
Congratulations to Jane Campbell on the birth of her baby daughter Louisa at Dunedin Hospital in
January of this year. Whilst on maternity leave Jane’s Research Associate position will be filled by
Ben Lumsden. Ben joins us from Otago University where he has recently completed a B.Sc (hons)
for which his dissertation investigated cadmium mobility under hill country fertilised with
superphosphate.
Cecile de Klein successfully lead the pastoral 21 industry/FRST bid for the environment programme
which has gained 4.25 million dollars per annum for collaborative research to be undertaken
predominantly by AgResearch, Crop and Food Research, NIWA, Landcare Research, ESR, Dexcel,
Massey University, Lincoln University and the University of Waikato. Contracts are currently being
put together with work due to begin shortly. In February Cecile was visited by Kathy Phelps from
Dairy Australia and Warwick MacDonald from Dexcel to discuss environmental dairy research.
Cecile de Klein also recently managed to find some time for science with the completion of N 2 0
measurements from the wise use of N trial completed. This research compared the effect of different N
fertiliser application rates and nitrification inhibitors on N 2 0 emissions and was carried out at
Invermay by Alison Rutherford and at Ballantrae by Coby Hoogendoorn.
Ross Monaghan and Chris Smith have completed the first year of measuring N leaching losses
under winter forage cropping with and without nitrification inhibitors at the Woodlands Research
station trial site. Ross Monaghan made a trip to the Inchbonnie catchment in the West coast to present
at a field day on BMP’s for dairy farming under extremely high rainfall. Ross Monaghan, Chris
Smith and David Houlbrooke presented research findings on water quality from mole pipe drained
land and soil compaction under dairy farming from the Southland Tussock creek field research site.
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David Houlbrooke, Alison Rutherford and our summer student Kim Walker have been walking
around agricultural land of a different sort as part of an assessment of soil and pasture quality that they
are carrying out on rehabilitated land at the Macraes gold mine in eastern Otago near Palmerston.
David Houlbrooke and Peter Carey (Land Research Services) are undertaking research for
Environment Canterbury near Culverden to assess nutrient losses caused by excess irrigation ‘wipe
off’ and in particular the mitigation option of ponding excess water and re-spraying to non- border
dyke land. Similarly Dave Houlbrooke and Ben Lumsden are carrying out some community
demonstration work in the Waikakahi catchment in South Canterbury where they are evaluating pond
and spray as well as bund and siphon mitigation options for preventing contaminant losses under
border dyke irrigation as well as an assessment of new wide laser levelled borders and K-Line use on
hill country.
Richard McDowell and David Houlbrooke have recently gained funding from NZFMRA to assess
nutrient losses under irrigated winter forage cropping and irrigated pasture on rolling landscapes on
the North Otago LUCI site. Jim Paton and Ben Lumsden have been busy instrumenting this site for
measurements of overland flow losses and mitigation assessments including nitrification inhibitors,
soil amendments and restricted winter grazing regimes. Richard McDowell has also established a
field research site near Lumsden in Southland along with Jim Paton and Ben Lumsden investigating
contaminant losses under wintering of deer on pasture and Swedes.
David Houlbrooke and Richard Muirhead were the main speakers at a series of farmer field-days
around the top of the South Island and the Canterbury region held during March and organised by
Fonterra Sustainability officer Lew Metcalf. Dave delivered information on best management
practises for dairy effluent application including storage, deferred irrigation and low rate application
while Richard discussed issues surrounding faecal microbes in agricultural systems.
Selai Letica, Dave Houlbrooke and Richard McDowell recently organised a social raft race for
Invermay staff down the Waikouaiti River near Dunedin. Selai and Dave were joined by Cecile de
Klein (Capt.), MS Srinivasen and Dennis Enright to put forward a soils team entry. Unfortunately their
pirate ship (raft) ‘Black Death’ (see photo) came last out of five boats entered. However they still
picked up 3 rd place as both the first and second placed boats were disqualified for being over
competitive!
And finally, the Invermay soils team a held wine tasting competition (out of work hours!), where a
close fought competition was won by Cecile de Klein who correctly identified the most information
about a series of wines brought along by al participants in brown paper bags including wine colour
(blind folded tasting), grape variety, country and region of origin, vintage and price bracket.
Left to right. MS Srinivasen (obstructed), Denis Enright, Cecile de Klein,
Selai Letica, Dave Houlbrooke.
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Grasslands
The Land and Environmental management section has two French students here for 6 months on
internships. Vincent d’Hauteville is working with Andrew Carran and the Global Change team in
the Land and Environment Management Department. I am working on CO2 soil emissions, in
association with the FACE program. (Free Air Carbon dioxide Enrichment). This internship is part of
his life science engineering formation at the INAP-G (Institut National Agronomique de Paris-
Grignon, www.inapg.fr). This institute is now called AgroParisTech, which is the life science branch
of ParisTech Institute, gathering the main engineering schools in Paris.
Vincent Cristia, from the Paris Institute of Technology for Life, Food and Environmental Sciences
(AgroParisTech), France is working with Keith Betteridge on spatial optimization. This work as a
part of the lake Taupo project, aims to help farmers to increase their incomes without overtaking the N
cap given by EW. He is working with software such as Overseer, Farmax or Solver Excel and working
on a study case in Taupo catchments.
Estelle Dominati, also from France, has started in March a PhD on "Valuing the soil ecosystem
services and natural capital". This PhD is being supported by AgResearch as part of the theme 4 of the
SLURI project and is jointly led with the New Zealand Centre for Ecological Economics in Massey
University. Estelle’s chief supervisors are Professor Murray Patterson of NZCEE and Dr Alec
Mackay of AgResearch.
The aim of the PhD is to identify environmental services provided by soils and identify which
processes of soils development are involved in these services. The second step will be to put a value
on some of these services provided by soils through 2 case studies on farms.
Nicole Woutersen has recently started her PhD at Massey University in soil ecology. The aim of her
project is to develop an invertebrate-based index to assess the quality of pastoral soils in New Zealand.
The index will use the feeding, life-cycle, and morphological characteristics of the invertebrates.
These characteristics may prove to be less spatially and temporally variable than measures of
invertebrate density, diversity and activity. The implications of changes in the index with increasing
agriculture intensification will be related to soil functioning.
Waikato University
Since our last report, Richard Smith, our physical volcanologist, has resigned from the Department of
Earth and Ocean Sciences and taken up a position with the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency
Management in Wellington. He and wife Barbara Hobden (volcanic petrologist) left Hamilton in
early January this year and soon after arrival in Wellington were able to announce the safe arrival of a
second son. We wish Richard, Barbara and family all the very best. A replacement lecturership in
volcanology has been advertised at Waikato University.
The Department (with support from Biological Sciences) ran a very successful ‘Earth, Oceans, and
Environment Trail’ on Sunday 4 March to mark ‘Sea Week’ and to promote and enhance universitypublic
relations. Around a dozen staff scattered between Hamilton and Raglan put on mini field
displays and activities for members of the public at six localities. Blessed with good weather and a
high level of enthusiasm, the event went off very well with hundreds of people taking advantage of the
free information-fest on offer. The trail included tours of Hamilton Gardens examining its ‘hidden
landscapes’ (David Lowe), fossil hunting in Te Kuiti group sedimentary rocks (Cam Nelson, Steve
Hood), Mt Karioi volcano lavas and tephras at Te Toto gorge (Roger Briggs), Bridal Veil Falls lavas,
forest vegetation, and a popular demonstration of electrofishing (Dave Campbell, Brendon Hicks,
Bruce Clarkson), Raglan Harbour dynamics (Terry Healy, Dirk Immenga), and beach processes,
surfing waves, and climatic change (Karin Bryan, Willem de Lange).
73

Professor Gerold Wefer from the University of Bremen in north Germany has completed his third and
final summer visit to the Department funded by Julius von Haast Fellowship awarded in 2005 by
MoRST. Gerold, a very high-powered oceanographer and paleoclimate specialist, has been setting up
a formal exchange/link between Bremen and Waikato universities for masterate students and staff. All
papers at master level in Bremen are taught in English. Professor Terry Healy has been Gerold’s key
contact at Waikato. Three students from Bremen enrolled at Waikato last year and sat their MSc
papers.
Louis Schipper has been promoted to Associate Professor after a year and half in the Department. He
participated as a panel member at the PCE20 Forum which celebrated the 20 th anniversary of the
formation of the office of the Parliamentary Commissioner. The conference focused on New Zealand’s
progress in sustainability with a range of overseas and New Zealand guests. Panel discussions will be
broadcast as six programs on Radio New Zealand on Sundays starting 26 th May.
Dave Campbell is fully immersed in duties as Chairperson of the Department.
Karsten Zegwaard and wife Lisa are doing
their bit to grow the pool of potential future
soil scientists. They have announced the safe
arrival of their fourth child (see photo).
Seven graduates have enrolled in the MSc soil science paper this year (being run by Louis Schipper,
Dave Campbell, and Megan balks): Leah Adlam, Marie Heaphy, Tehani Kuske, Natalie Miedema,
Paul Mudge, Tim Snell, and Justin Wyatt.
Graham Sparling is now spending one day a week at Waikato University working with Louis and
students on a range of soil topics. Graham has just returned from the Western Australia where he
caught up with former colleagues and participated in a series of workshops looking at soil quality
monitoring.
Megan Balks is on leave until mid-year, although she spent time in Antarctica over summer as usual.
David Lowe is busy with teaching duties including running the Quaternary MSc paper (four students)
and the interdisciplinary planning and environmental evaluation paper (around 25 students including
Geography planning students), and preparing for the 27 th INQUA congress to be held in Cairns in late
July-early August.
Natalie Watkins submitted her MSc thesis “The ability of nitrification inhibitors to decrease
denitrification rates from dairy farm soils”. Eight other masterate these, and one PhD thesis, were
submitted in the Department in late February.
74

Lincoln Environmental Research
To improve our understanding of the
vadose zone composition and the
groundwater system around our ‘Spydia’,
Aaron Wall, Juliet Clague, and Roland
Stenger have done some more
exploratory coring in recent months (Fig.
1). The additional wells will help Fuli
Wang in our Lincoln office to establish a
model of the groundwater system in the
area surrounding the ‘Spydia’, while
Thomas Wöhling is focussing on the
modelling of the water dynamics from
the soil surface down to the water table.
Aaron Wall exploring the vadose zone in the Tutaeuaua catchment near Lake Taupo.
Last month we learned with great sadness of the untimely death of our former colleague Craig
Burgess. During his time with us from 1998 to 2003 his contribution was vital for the success of our
dairy effluent project at Reporoa and our involvement in the domestic effluent irrigation project at
Temple View. He also contributed substantially to our work in the Pukemanga and Toenepi
catchments. Craig will always be remembered as a great guy, committed to his work, loving the
outdoors, and full of energy.
HortResearch
Rogerio Cichota is leaving us after three and a half years. He will be submitting his PhD thesis on
“Modelling sulphute dynamics in soils - The relevance of Ion pair adsorption” shortly (hopefully) and
has already started work with AgResearch. It's been great having Rogerio around and we are already
missing him. Luckily he will just be over the road, and through SLURI and other projects we'll still be
working together.
Steve Green has attended the LTC conference in Rotorua. As usual he enjoyed it so much that he
received the “red card” for going over time.
Trillaud Mickoël from ENITA in France is here for a internship to the end of August. He will be
working on Steve’s SPASMO modelling program, and trying to put it into another programming
language.
Markus Deurer (with Brent Clothier and Grant Northcott as co-investigators) has come into the
second Marsden round with his proposal on “Can soil biophysics unravel why nitrous oxide emissions
from soils are so variable?” Good luck!
Iris Vogeler has received a Trimble Agriculture Research Fellowship to look at the effect of
wastewater application on soil quality. Iris will go to Germany to work with Prof. Horn from the
University of Kiel and with Prof. Bachmann from the University of Hannover.
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Lincoln University
We welcome Dr Tim Clough to the Soil and Physical Sciences (S&PS) Group and
congratulate him on his appointment to 'Senior Lecturer'. Tim's appointment comes upon the heels of
John Adams retirement. Tim’s expertise and interests include stable isotope science and
methodologies, nitrogen cycling, greenhouse gases and climate change and biogeochemistry. Tim
brings a wealth of research expertise to the position that includes a Senior Fulbright Fellowship at UC
Davis and other collaborative studies at The Queen's University in Belfast, the University of Rhode
Island and the Institute of Ecosystem studies in New York.
We welcome also Professor Quirine Ketterings who is visiting the Centre for Soil and Environmental
Quality (CSEQ) for a month. Quirine is Associate Professor at the Crop and Soil Sciences
Department, Cornell University in the US. Her main research interest is nutrient management,
particularly in view of reducing losses to the wider environment. She is here to develop and conduct
collaborative research with CSEQ while on sabbatical leave.
We also farewelled two of our colleagues: Norma Grimwood who has retired after giving 21 years of
faithful secretarial support to the S&PS Group, and Dr Kate Orwin, an AGMARDT-funded
postdoctoral fellow. We wish Norma, and her husband Bob, well in their retirement. Kate, who came
to the S&PS Group only last year, had been working on soil microbial dynamics and function in
relation to nutrient return from grazing animals, with Leo Condron, Tim Clough and Maureen
O’Callaghan of AgResearch, Lincoln. Kate has accepted a 5 year Fellowship in Terrestrial Ecology
at the Biological Sciences Department, Lancaster University, England. She I will continue working
with links between above and belowground communities and soil ecology. Kate is planning on
maintaining her links with the Group and is planning to be back in NZ for a couple of months every
year.
Graeme Buchan is currently on a (mini-) sabbatical at BOKU University, in springtime Vienna. He
is collaborating with Professor Willi Loiskandl and Mr Wolfgang Sokol on two main projects:
development of a novel soil moisture probe; and methods for calibration of soil moisture probes. In
addition, he is working on a proposal for a future collaboration investigating cover crop effects on soil
hydraulic properties. These projects fit very well with the University's acronym: BOKU is literally the
abbreviation for 'BodenKultur' (which approximately translates as "earth or land management").
Graeme writes that he is also taking a boat trip next week down the Danube to visit a soil physics
group at Bratislava in Slovakia.... and will also visit a field site near Vienna which includes a winery
(strictly on business -you understand).
A number of our PhD candidates have presented research proposal seminars to the Group. Felix Gitai
(Senior Lecturer, Vudal University, Papua New Guinea) presented his research on "Improving N
cycling efficiency in dairy pasture systems". Felix is studying at Lincoln University with funding
from NZAID and is supervised by Keith Cameron, Hong Di and Jim Moir.
Shengjing Shi presented a research proposal on “Influence of root exudates on soil microbial diversity
and activity”. Shengjing is supervised by a multi-discipline team headed by Leo Condron which
includes: EE Jones (LU), A Stewart (LU), M O'Callaghan (AgResearch). D Smalley (AgResearch), C.
Walter (Scion Research). AE Richardson (CSIRO)
Masters students recently registered and now working in the Group include Debbie Kapal (Papua
New Guinea) “Influence of a legume green manure crop on cereal stubble decomposition and nitrogen
availability”, superivised by Leo Condron and Roger McLenaghen. Tina Harrison-Kirk (NZ)
“Effects of rewetting and drying cycles on soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics” supervised by Leo,
Rob Sherlock and Mike Beare (Crop & Food, Lincoln).
We also have Several Honours students in the Group this year. George Gibb (BAgSci Hons)
“Influence of woody debris decomposition on plant growth and nitrogen availability”, supervised by
Leo Condron and Roger McLenaghen. Hannah Leckie (BSc Hons) “Using 137 Cs to examine the
effects of grazing on soil erosion in the High country; focusing on the Mackenzie Basin”, supervised
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y Peter Almond and Laura Buckthought (BSc Hons) “Nitrate sources and fate and N2O fluxes on
the Ashburton River”, supervised by Tim Clough, Frank Kelliher (Landcare Research) and Rob
Sherlock
Each year the Centre for Soil and Environmental Quality awards prizes to the top three students
studying Soil Science subjects at the 100, 200 and 300 levels. The awards are designed to recognize
excellence and to encourage the students to continue to excel in their study of soil science subjects.
Many of the past award winners have gone on to study for Honours, Masters and PhD degrees. We
are again delighted to award prizes (a certificate and book vouchers) to the top students that studied
soil science at Lincoln University during 2006.
LINCOLN UNIVERSITY SOIL SCIENCE PRIZE WINNERS (AND STAFF) 2006
Back row: Jim Moir, Graeme Buchan, Tim Clough.
2 nd row: Rob Sherlock (Group Leader), Peter Almond, Roger McLenaghen, Nathan
Paton, Rhys Hamilton, Brendon Malcolm, William Henson.
Front row: Keith Cameron, Sean Gresham, Laure Buckthought, Fiona Sinclair.
Absent:
Alan Shand, Oliver Polson, NadineRestieaux.
Ensis
A press release on the “Nitrogen leaching from gorse and its impact on water quality” was well
received nation-wide. It was well covered by major newspapers in New Zealand, and a number of
enquiries from local governments and government departments. Guna Magesan believes this could
become a national project sometime soon.
New Zealand Land Treatment Collective (LTC) annual conference was held from 14 to 16 March
2007 in Rotorua. The theme of the conference was "Nutrient removal and water quality issues". More
than 110 delegates from various research institutes, universities, central government agencies, regional
councils and district councils, as well as consultants and private operators participated in the
conference. They enjoyed the conference with high value presentations and as well as field tour
throughout Rotorua’s area. During the field tour, on-site wastewater treatment plant trials, long-term
effluent application, vermi-composting of industrial wastes, water quality management of lakes and
nutrient management of intensive dairy farming in lake catchments were discussed.
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The technical committee believes that this was the best conference ever organised by LTC.
Congratulations to Michael Quintern, the technical manager of LTC, who had organised this
conference. Members of Ensis, Hailong Wang and Robert Bagnall helped with the conference.
Ensis and ESR recently organised the third Ensis-ESR joint Biosolids end-users meeting in Rotorua on
13 March 2007. There were over 40 participants in the third joint end-users meeting. Majority of them
also attended LTC conference.
Together with Bay of Plenty Polytechnic and Alison Lowe of the Rotorua District Council, Hailong
Wang organized field tour on environmental monitoring for the third year students from the Auckland
University of Technology.
Guna Magesan was invited to present a paper on “Nitrogen management using a low-cost
technology” at the Rotorua Farms Research Field Day on 19 April 2007. It was organised by the
Rotorua Lakes and Land Trust, with the financial support from the Ministry for the Environment and
Sustainable Farming Fund. Various CRIs, farmers, councillors, and some general public participated.
Ensis Vermicomposting Research Centre has been attracting visitors continuously since its operation
begun. Michael Quintern and Guna Magesan are leading the project. Vermicomposting of different
wastes was an attractive project during the recent “Science in the Park” open day organised by Scion.
About 4000 Rotorua public visited the camp, and the children took some worms for their backyard
composting of wastes. Similar response was received during the “Sustainability week” at Scion, and
during the “Green Team” holiday programme.
Guna Magesan was invited to write a book chapter for a book entitled “Use of treated sewage water
in agriculture: impacts on crop and soil environment” to be published by Blackwell Publishing,
Oxford, UK. A number of W2R programme members have been invited to referee publications in
various international peer-reviewed journals. Programme Leader has been invited to a write a book
review on “Plantations and Protected Areas in Sustainable Forestry” edited by Price et al., the
Haworth Press, USA
nzsss
Minutes of a meeting of the NZSSS Council held on Monday 30th March
2007 at 10 am in the seminar meeting room at HortResearch in
Palmerston North
Present:
A.Mackay (Chair); B. Clothier; A. Hewitt; R. Mclenaghen; C. de Klein;
P. Fraser (Minutes); G. Magesan; P. Singleton; I. Vogeler; I. Vanderkolk;
L. Schipper, J. Adams;
Apologies: None
Minutes of previous Meeting
“That the minutes of the August meeting be confirmed as a true and accurate record”
Matters arising from Minutes
RSNZ – to be discussed further during meeting - as listed as part of agenda
Showcasing NZ Soils – on agenda
John organised Lynne Mason’s farewell
Chair - carried
Chair -carried
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Matters for general business
Joint conferences in alternate years
Beyond 2010 conferences
ANZSSS PEF
Sponsorship at conferences
Approval of Agenda
It was moved “that the agenda be approved”
Treasury
The Treasurer tabled her reports for the last 2 periods (as she was absent at our last meeting)
Financial report 30 August 2006 to 28 February 2007
Income
Subscriptions $ 1,6096.62
Book sales $ 1,720.00
Summit Quinphos Award 2006 $ 4,000.00
Conference registration received in error $ 2,124.99
Royal Society (IUSS membership+travel) $ 643.26
Donations $ 20.00
Interest $ 56.00
Total $ 24,660.87
Payments
Soil News Postage for 6 months $ 539.91
Educational Solutions for 6 months $ 1,875.94
Photocopying and postage $ 1,005.96
Lincoln University Secretarial Support $ 1,500.00
Conference awards $ 6,005.80
Waikato Uni student support 2006 conference $ 1,500.00
Massey student support 2006 Conference $ 1,500.00
Lincoln Uni student support 2006 conference $ 1,226.24
IUSS membership fees $ 599.63
Audit of accounts $ 200.00
Council Travel $ 473.56
Innovatek registrations received in error $ 2,124.99
Bank fees $ 27.50
Chair – carried
Cecile de Klein
21 March 2007
Total $ 18,579.53
Auditing has been done and paid for.
Conference awards have been paid including to students and the Summit Quinphos Award
Educational solutions were paid for printing Soil News.
“That the payments listed be approved”
C. de Klein/ J. Adams - carried
COUNCIL MEMBERS’ ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Roles and responsibilities for Council members were discussed and decided upon as follows for the
next 2 year period.
Secretary
Treasurer
79
Trish Fraser
Cecile de Klein

Soil News Editor
Iris Vogeler and Isabelle Vanderkolk
Awards Convenor
Guna Magesan
Science Fairs
Roger McLenaghen
Website manager
Isabelle Vanderkolk
Royal Society
Brent Clothier
RSNZ Primary Resource Committee
Alec Mackay
AJSR Chris McLay (until Sep 2007)
Soil in the NZ Landscape
Roger Mclenaghen
Profiliing/ show casing NZ Soils
Allan Hewitt/ Louis Schipper
Developing policy to protect soils
Peter Singleton
Linkage with ASSS
Alec Mackay
ANZSSPEF
Brent Clothier
Costs for updating website need to be investigated
Action: Council members to investigate options and report back at next meeting.
Need to bear in mind potential limitations of our current host site, but we could also consider changing
that too if need be.
Membership:
Since the last meeting, the following membership changes were received:
Resignations:
John Payne
David Ives (deceased)
“That the resignations from all those listed above be accepted.”
New Members
Full members:
Paul Johnstone, C&FR
Andrew van Scheik, ESR
J. Adams / G. Magesan - carried
“That the applications for membership from those listed above be accepted.”
P. Fraser/ G. Magesan - carried
Soil News
Big thanks to Iris and Isabelle for an excellent first edition of Soil News by the new editing team.
Soil art – check out website www.asssi.asn.au for a new spin on soil art by Andrew Rate.
Historical archives
“The Society is happy to allocate up to $1500 for binding of historical archives of Soil News and
Council gives permission for an ongoing continuation with annual binding of Soil News issues in a
similar manner”.
J. Adams / G Magesan - carried
Action: John Adams to arrange for the archive copies to be bound and stored appropriately.
SITNZL
We still need to resolve what the current situation is with the CD of images.
Action: Alec to approach Alan Palmer and get him to report to us about the CD and the associated
costs at our next meeting.
Awards:
RSNZ Fellowships
We still have two live nominations and these have both been revised and resubmitted for this year.
80

AJSR
Chris McLay’s term as Society Representative on this committee is due to end soon. It was agreed that
we would like to nominate Louis Schipper as his replacement in due course. Action: Chris McLay to
follow this up with Jenny Fegent.
WWW
The website needs revamped and updated. Costs to be sought as stated earlier.
Soil Science Update/Roundup
It was decided that we should combine items 11 and 15 for future meetings and rename the item as
suggested above. See later in meeting for more on this topic.
Showcasing NZ Soils
Jacqui Horswell is still keen to help with this concept and she has a number of useful contacts lined up
for us. Unfortunately our application for funding was declined last year by the RSNZ but they did
suggest it might be worthy of resubmission. We may decide to put some money into this project to
follow it up. The Smithsonian display is nearly complete.
Need to investigate Horizons current plans for “The Great Green Rig” that they are currently
developing to see if there is room for a soils component.
Action: Alec and Louis to each follow up.
Education and Science Fairs:
Science Fairs
Letters will need to be sent out soon to Fair organisers asking if they would like our book prize.
Action : Roger McL to follow up as part of his new role.
Conferences:
NZSSS Conference 2006, Rotorua
In general we are very pleased with this conference and happy to hear also that it is likely that a small
profit was made. Final accounts have not yet been settled, but they hope to do this shortly.
A number of very happy Undergraduates from Waikato wrote to thank the Society for supporting them
to get to the conference.
NZSSS/ ASSS Joint Conference, Massey University, 2008
World Congress, Brisbane 2010
Prof Roger Swift is to be Head of IUSS in 2010.
We had previously intimated that we would like Prof Ron McLaren to act as our representative on the
organising committee, but so far nobody has heard from the organising committee.
Action: Alec to follow up with ASSS President.
Some discussion arose regarding the location of future conferences beyond 2010. Given that the
World Congress will be in Australia in 2010, will they want to have another joint meeting in Australia
as per current plans in 2012?
Action: Alec to follow up with new ASSS President, Stephen Cattle.
Joint Conference 2008 at Massey
Vince Neall joined the meeting to report on progress to date.
Vince pointed out that we need to consider whether we need insurance for public liability.
Action: Cecile to follow up.
It was proposed that we invite Dr Stephen Cattle to join the organising committee for the 2008 joint
conference. It would also be good if we could coordinate one of our Council meetings to coincide with
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one of the organising committee meetings so that we could get Stephen to join in with relevant parts of
our meeting.
Action: Alec to follow up.
It was suggested that we could also follow up on associate membership of ASSI to give reciprocal
access to each other’s magazines.
Action: Alec to follow up with Stephen Cattle.
Conference Sponsorship
Doug Edmeades recently raised the issue that conference sponsors could potentially be seeking
product endorsement merely via their sponsorship association with a given conference. Following
discussion we agreed it was important that we allow freedom for individuals to express their views,
but that it would also be wise for the Society to ensure that a disclaimer is added to the information
that is provided to future conference participants.
Action: Alec to contact Doug to thank him for raising the issue.
ANZSSPEF
Some more promotion is needed for this scheme.
It was proposed that in future “the responsibility for judging this award be via the same committee as
Fellowships i.e. the President, Vice President and Past President).”
P. Fraser/ P. Singleton - carried
Science Funding Issues/Roundup
Kyoto Protocol – submission – Alec and Brent have passed on some comments.
In the Lake Taupo area it is currently proposed that land will be taken out of production to reduce the
amount of nitrate. A similar tack is being taken with Lake Karapiro. The issue is water quality – not
only N but also P and faecal coliforms. There is a large amount of N use giving rise to possible algal
blooms in the Firth of Thames.
Catchments – BMP’s are being adopted to look at the improvement in water quality.
Pasture 21 – is looking at N, P and bugs mainly on dairy sites (with industry support), but also other
pastures. The work is nearly complete.
Demographics of students – it has been noticed that the students attending Lincoln are now generally
older than they used to be.
PCE Sustainability conference – Louis Schipper recently attended - the level of discussion was very
high, but the general messages were that they believed they still had insufficient data; that indicators
seemed to be coming back into vogue; and that there is a lack of regulation in NZ.
Agmardt – have stated that they are very concerned about the state of soil science and they discussed
this at a recent board meeting.
Secretariat
Correspondence
A number of letters of thank you for support in attending the recent conference were gratefully
received from Waikato University students. Other items were merely address change notifications and
such.
NEXT MEETING
Around mid May – Secretary to canvas members closer to the time.
Meeting closed at 3.30pm.
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historic photos
These photographs relate to the article by Phil Tonkin, which features on page 59 of this edition.
DSIR Soil Bureau’s first conference, staff on a field trip to the Wairarapa in 1947.
From the left: A. Hampton, James Raeside, Ivan Pohlen, Alan Pullar, Keith Dixon (back), Norman Taylor
(back), Colin Vucetich, Graham Bruere (back), Charles Harris, Wyn Collie (back), Ian Baumgart, Harry Gibbs
(back), Eric Chittenden, Allan Underhill, Les Blakemore, Eddie Cutler (back), Ken Birrell, Alan Browning
(back), Charlie Sutherland, Pat Fox (back), Bruce Miller (back) and Gordon Gemmell. Photo supplied by A.
Metson. Copyright Landcare Research Ltd?
book review
Harry Harry Gibbs Gibbs soil soil mapping western Wellington
region in about 1947.
Copyright Landcare Research Ltd
Mr Carson and son viewing contour furrows on Highclare Downs
Estabished about 1947, Glenmark soil conservation scheme
83

Recording another soil, John Bruce
and Dr Peter McIntosh on the
Kaiwera District survey,
Southland. Photo supplied by Dr P
McIntosh formerly Landcare
Research Ltd.
A group happening, soil scientists
examining an Omihi soil,, Waipara
Springs vineyard, North Canterbury
1994 Soil Conference field trip.
Photo Dr P.J. Tonkin
Meeting of District Soil Conservators (DSC) at Water and Soil Division’s HQ, Wellington in 1966.
Back row from the left R.C. Dixie Senior Soil Conservator (SSC) HQ, L. Thompson DSC Hamilton, G. Howard
SSC HQ, A.N. Glass DSC Auckland, D.R. Wilkie DSC Christchurch, E.H. Kelman SSC HQ, M.E. Yates Scientist
HQ, C.G. Calder DSC Dunedin, H.C. Pearse DSC Palmerston North. Front from the left A.F. Greenall SSC HQ,
A.E. Clark Chairman SC&RCC, N.C. McLeod Director Water and Soil Division, D.A. Campbell Chief Soil
Conservator HQ. Photo supplied by G. Howard. Copyright Landcare Research Ltd?
84

ook review
Australian Soil Fertility Manual (Third Edition). Editor: Graham Price.
Fertilizer Industry Federation of Australia and CSIRO Publishing, 2006.168pp.
ISBN: 0-643-09021-5.
Review by John Adams
Since the first edition of the Australian Soil Fertility Manual was published in 1999, it has been a
valuable guide, not just for the fertilizer industry but also for land-based primary producers of all types
in Australia together with consultants and tertiary-level teachers of Soil Science.
It is a real compendium of information, quite tightly packed into 168 pages of text and appendices. A
large number of people have contributed to this manual but, because of good editing by Graham Price,
the text has a very consistent style and is easy to read.
The third edition has been revised to reflect an increased emphasis on the environmental fate of
nutrients and appropriate management strategies. This is based on the quite comprehensive
information on soil physical, chemical and biological properties which forms the bulk of the chapter
contents. Several chapters have been revised and rewritten from the earlier editions.
New content covers liming practice and effectiveness, effects of fertilizers on food quality, long-term
fertilizer use, decision support software, budgeting for profitable nitrogen use and best management
practices for nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers. There is also a new chapter on regulations for
handling and using fertilizers (in an Australian context).
The appendices are a valuable resource too, providing detailed information including nutrient
removals in a very wide range of crops and livestock, the composition of various fertilizers and soil
amendments, physical properties of major fertilizer products and a broad discussion of the Australian
soil orders. While this last appendix provides an approximate correlation between the Australian soil
orders and other soil classification systems, New Zealand is not one of the others.
The manual is an excellent source of information, and while some sections are obviously more
relevant to Australian users, much of it is of universal value. This is particularly so for the very good
basic information on the properties of soils and their interactions with water and added nutrients. It
provides a very sound guide for primary producers and their fertilizer advisers or other consultants. It
could also be a useful university text, although much of the basic content is broadly similar in
coverage and level to that in McLaren and Cameron’s Soil Science text, which covers a wider content
and is rather more relevant to New Zealand students. The Australian fertilizer industry is to be
congratulated for continuing to support publication of the manual which undoubtedly will be widely
used by many soil science practitioners.
abstracts
Comparison of the effectiveness of a nitrification inhibitor,
dicyandiamide (DCD), in reducing nitrous oxide emissions in four
different soils under different climatic and management conditions
H. J. Di*, K. C. Cameron & R. R. Sherlock
Centre for Soil and Environmental Quality, PO Box 84, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand.
*Corresponding author: Fax: 0064 3 3253607; Email: dih@lincoln.ac.nz
85

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a potent greenhouse gas and, in New Zealand, about a third of the total
greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector are of N2O, mostly derived from animal excreta
in grazed pasture soils. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a nitrification
inhibitor, dicyandiamide (DCD), in reducing N2O emissions from animal urine patches in four
different soils located in different regions of New Zealand with different soil, climatic and
management conditions. The four soils are Templeton fine sandy loam and Lismore stony silt loam in
Canterbury in the South Island, Horotiu silt loam in the Waikato region, and Taupo pumice sand near
Lake Taupo, both in the North Island. Results showed that the application of a fine-particle-suspension
nitrification inhibitor, DCD, to grazed pasture soils was very effective in reducing N2O emissions in
all four different soils. Total N2O emissions (over 69-137 days) from animal urine patches ranged
from 1 to 20.9 kg N2O-N ha-1 without DCD. These were reduced to 0.31-5.7 kg N2O-N ha-1 by the
use of DCD, representing 61-73% reductions (with an average of 70% reduction). The N2O-N
emission factor from animal urine N, EF3, was reduced from an average of 0.9% to 0.3% by the use of
DCD. These results demonstrate the potential of using nitrification inhibitors to mitigate N2O
emissions in a wide range of grazed pasture soils under different climatic and management conditions.
Keywords: Nitrous oxide, greenhouse gas, mitigation, grassland, grazed pastures, nitrification
inhibitor, dicyandiamide, EF3, emission factor.
Published in Soil Use and Management 23: 1-9
A critical review of the influence of effluent irrigation on the fate of
pesticides in soil
K. Müller 1 *, G.N. Magesan 2 , N.S. Bolan 3
1 AgResearch Ltd., Ruakura Research Centre, East Street, Hamilton, New Zealand
2 Ensis, Private Bag 3020, Rotorua, New Zealand
3 Institute of Natural Resources, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
Mueller, K., Magesan, G.N., Bolan, N.S. 2007. A critical review of the influence of effluent irrigation on the fate
of pesticides in soil. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 120: 93-116.
The impact of effluent irrigation on the transformation and mobility of organic contaminants is poorly
understood. The objectives of this review paper are to (i) discuss the fundamental processes
influencing the transformation and transport of pesticides in soil; (ii) to present a critical analysis of
the impact of effluent irrigation on the transformation and transport of pesticides in soils; and (iii) to
suggest research areas that need attention. Effluent irrigation is affecting the fate of pesticides through
its direct effect on the transformation and transport of pesticides that are already present at the
irrigation sites, and its indirect effect on soil properties that are important in controlling the
transformation and transport of organic contaminants. It has often been noticed that the effluentderived
dissolved organic matter (DOM) facilitates the movement of soil-borne pesticides by forming
soluble pesticide complexes, and enhances their biodegradation by providing energy sources for the
microorganisms that are involved in pesticide degradation. However, the results of field and laboratory
experiments that examined the effect of effluent irrigation on the fate of pesticides are inconsistent; in
some cases reduced infiltration rates and enhanced sorption have been observed, but enhanced
pesticide mobility was also reported. The inconsistency may be related to the inherent spatial
variability of soil properties and/or the heterogeneity of effluent quality. For example, effluents vary in
the nature and concentration of DOM that play a vital role in the degradation, sorption and transport
behaviour of pesticides. Similarly, they vary in the concentrations of solvents and surfactants that have
been shown to impact sorption and transport of organic contaminants. Field-based investigations on
the impact of effluent irrigation on pesticide fate coupled with an accurate characterisation of the
effluent are urgently required to assess the long-term risk associated with effluent irrigation in relation
to pesticide transformation and transport.
Keywords: water reuse, reclaimed water, preferential flow, dissolved organic matter
86

Denitrification capacity in the vadose zone at three sites in the Lake
Taupo catchment, New Zealand
Greg Barkle A , Tim Clough B , and Roland Stenger C
A Corresponding author. Aqualinc Research Ltd, PO Box 14-041, Hamilton, New Zealand. Email:
G.Barkle@Aqualinc.co.nz
B Agriculture & Life Sciences Division, PO Box 84, Lincoln University, Lincoln, New Zealand.
C Lincoln Environmental Research, Private Bag 3062, Hamilton, New Zealand.
Land use in the Lake Taupo catchment is under scrutiny, as early signs of deteriorating water quality
in Lake Taupo have been observed. Although the fate of contaminants in soil and groundwater are
comparatively well studied, the transformations in the lower vadose zone, i.e. the zone between the
soil and the groundwater, are less well understood. The capacity for NO3-N removal via biological
denitrification, based on utilising the resident C substrate, in the vadose zone of the Lake Taupo
catchment is quantified in this work. Complete vadose zone profiles were sampled at 3 sites
(Rangiatea, Waihora, and Kinloch), from the soil surface down to the watertable in approximately 0.5-
m depth increments. Texture, allophane content, pH, and concentrations of extractable NO3-N, NH4-
N, and dissolved organic carbon were determined. Incubations were undertaken to determine the
denitrification capacity of the vadose zone materials amended with NO3-15N, but no added carbon
substrate, and maintained under anaerobic conditions at 28°C. Gas samples were taken from the
headspace after 48 h and analysed for N2 and N2O. In soil depths down to about 1.2 m, the
denitrification capacity ranged from 0.03 to 9.18 kg N/ha.day, and below this depth it ranged from

Upcoming Conferences
SOIL – The living skin of Planet Earth
The Organising Committee for the Joint Australian and New Zealand Soil Science Societies met on 24
April, where a schedule of key symposia have been agreed upon. These are:
A. Valuing Natural Capital
B. Soils and the Carbon Economy
C. Integrated Environmental Management
D. Sustaining Soil Biological Health and Function
E. The Water Crisis
F. The Salinity Crisis
G. Soil Acidification
H. Horizons for Soil Science Education in Australasia and Oceania: realising the potential
I. Joint meeting of the International Union of Soil Sciences’ Commissions 4.1 “Soils & The
Environment” and 4.3 “Soils & Land Use Change”.
Stephen Cattle, President of ASSSI, has also been invited to join the Organising Committee, and we
hope will attend two of the planning meetings (one this year and one next).
Field trips being offered include:
A1. A pre-Conference Field Trip from Auckland to Palmerston North from 28-30 November 2008, led
by David Lowe (University of Waikato) and Bob Stewart (Massey).
B1-4. Four intra-Conference Field trips on 3 December 2008.
C1. A post-Conference trip from Palmerston North to Wellington on 6 December 2008, led by Tessa
Mills (HortResearch) and
C2. A post-Conference trip from Wellington to Picton on the Cook Strait ferry, then Picton to
Christchurch, led by Peter Almond (Lincoln University), from 7-9 December.
Details of the Conference are now available at http://conferences.massey.ac.nz
Shortly, intending participants will be asked to complete a First Circular registering their interests and
intent to participate in any of the field trips.
88

NZARM Conference
NZARM
The New Zealand Association of Resource Management
is an incorporated society that provides support and
focus for people who share a professional
interest in the sustainable management of
New Zealand’s natural resources. Purpose
is to champion the resource management
cause, to promote professionalism, and
to maintain a strong community spirit of
meeting, sharing, and having a good time while we’re
conference, regional workshops, a Broadsheet newsletter,
and the opportunity to become an accredited
practitioner of resource management (CPRM).
Topics of interest
We welcome presentations that either align with
the Conference theme, t within the initial pro -
gramme outline (see overleaf), or capture one or
more of the topics listed below:
• Carbon credit trading for resource mgt (inc. forestry)
•ExamplesofsuccessfulorunsuccessfulPtoP
• Nutrient planning and Farm Plans
• Thresholds/capping & land use controls
• Advances in resource mgt. (including technology)
• Resource management tools (RMA toolkit)
• The NEXT BIG THING in resource mgt.
• Science informing policy
• Achieving or ensuring compliance
•Bridgingthegap
Important Dates
25 MAY Deadline for expressions of interest
8 JUNE
22 JUNE Deadline for abstracts
3 SEPTEMBER Late fee for registration applies
25 SEPTEMBER Conference
Invitation
NZARM members and colleagues are invited to meet in
Palmerston North, New Zealand, 25-27 September 2007,
to participate in the 54th Annual Conference of the NZ
Association of Resource Management.
Purpose is to explore the links (or lack thereof) in resource
management between scientists, policy makers
and planners, and on-the-ground practicioners respon-
Call for Presenters
Expressions of interest are now invited for presentations
and posters of relevance to the topics listed opposite.
A presentation title, author name(s), and brief outline
can be sent to the NZARM Secretary for consideration
by the Conference Organising Committee. Successful
submitters will be asked to provide an abstract, and then
have the choice of submitting a paper or having their
presentation summarised by a third party for inclusion
in the Proceedings.
Registration
Registration opens 2nd June 2007. Indicative costs for a
Registration fees
before 3 rd Sept 2007
NZARM
Members
Non
NZARM
Student
rate
Full 3 day registration $290 $380 $150
Conference dinner $50 $70 $30
1 day registration only $120 $150 $60
(After 3rd Sept 2007 add 20% to the registration fee)
Eligibility for the special student rate is limited by number and will be
NZARM Secretary
Private Box 5280
Palmerston North
NEW ZEALAND
TabithaA@xtra.co.nz
th
nzarm 54 annual conference
From Policy to
Practice
achieving changes on the ground
25 - 27 September 2007
Palmerston North
New Zealand
ADVANCE NOTICE &
CALL FOR PRESENTERS
Principal Sponsor
Proposed programme
Tuesday 25th September
Session 1: Setting the scene
Session 2: Plenary session of invited speakers delivering the
(3 speakers) and an extended open discussion.
Session 3: The vagaries of policy and planning - speakers
by discussion and rebuttal.
Session 4: What’s working - speakers to present examples of
-
tion of the Big Green Rig
Happy hour, Conference Dinner and entertainment
Wednesday 26th September
Session 5: What are the new options if it’s not working?
Speakers presenting on options for the future of resource
management, with discussion.
Session 6: To be decided.
Field trip #1: How the West was won. Policy to practice
examples from the western side of the Manawatu-Wanganui
Region. Includes dinner and culmination of the NZARM
Tourney.
Thursday 27th September
Field trip #2: A full day to explore Policy to Practice examples,
successes, and challenges as they relate to regional issues
and initiatives.
6 Conference Commandments
• Thou shall participate
in discussion sessions.
Attendees shall endeavor
to ask one question of the
presenters per day.
• Thou had better turn
sessions. Discouragement
meted out according to
ring tone ridiculousness
• Thou sharn’t give a boring
presentation. Slides
must be legible, and
presentations must be
delivered clearly & with
enthusiasm.
to meet at least two new
people each day.
• Thou sharn’t be tardy
getting back from session
breaks.
• Thou shall bring an
open attitude to learning
new things, participating,
meeting new people, and
generally making this an
enjoyable conference.
From Policy to Practice: Achieving changes on the ground
Who should attend
Anyone with an interest in New Zealand’s resource management,
especially all NZARM members (including representatives
from Northland and the South Island), and colleagues
particularly those involved in the ‘Science - Policy - Practitioner’
triangle at both government and local levels.
The BIG GREEN RIG
mountain to Mohammed. Conference goers get the opportunity
to explore the Big Green Rig in the comfort of the
Conference setting.
NZARM Tourney
Conference goers
will be invited to
participate in the
light-hearted NZARM
Tourney, which challenges
representative
groups on their
resource management
knowledge and skills.
Mailing List
Please submit your contact
details to the NZARM
Secretary if you wish to be
placed
on the Conference mail-
ing list to recieve
updates and thecall for registration. NZARM members are
automatically included in this list.
Sponsors
Field Trips
NZARM emphasises getting out and ‘walking the talk’.
Manawatu-Wanganui Region.
Field Trip #1 is a half-day focusing on noteworthy examples
of biodiversity restoration, soil resillience management,
introduction to the Region’s western-most landscapes, issues,
policy and management.
Field Trip #2 is a full day
excursion into the realms
of water and hill country
issues, with a particular
emphasis on Policy to
Practice with Horizons
Students
proposed regional
plan (the One Plan)
and the Sustainable
Land Management
Initiative (SLUI) created
in response to
the 2004 Storm &
Flooding event.
Farm visits are included,
and there
will be much opportunity for
debating what does and doesn’t work.
A special student rate is made available for a limited number
of registrations. Posters are also invited from students study-
The Conference Organising Committee has initiated sponsorship recruitment. Three levels of Bronze, Silver and
Gold sponsorship are available. Successful sponsors will be treated preferentially through session dedication,
promotion through Conference material, and a limited number of complementary registrations. For more information
please contact the NZARM Secretary.
www.nzarm.org.nz
www.nzarm.org.nz
89
www.nzarm.org.nz

Job vacancies
Soil chemist position available in the Department of Agronomy at Kansas State University. The
position description is at:
http://www.agronomy.k-state.edu/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid-633
Funnies
Irishmen ship soil to U.S. for sentimental burials
DUBLIN, Oct 27 2006 (Reuters) –
Two Irishmen have set up a business selling dirt to nostalgic Irish Americans who want a handful of
"the mother country" on their graves. Pat Burke, 27, and Alan Jenkins, 65, have just shipped their first
$1 million load of "official" Irish soil to New York – at $15 per 12-ounce (340-gram) bag -- and
confidently expect it will be followed by many more. "The demand has been absolutely phenomenal,"
Burke, an agricultural scientist from County Tipperary, said on Friday. "We knew it would take off but
not in our wildest dreams did we expect the reaction we've had so far." Burke, who has patented a way
of processing the soil so it passes U.S. import rules that demand it is free of disease and nonindigenous
insects, said the pair were in talks with "one of the world's largest retailers" and a U.S.
shopping channel. "We're looking at going worldwide," he said. The firm has pledged to donate 80
percent of its profits to charities in Ireland and the United States. For more than a century Irish people
were forced by famine, poverty and unemployment to abandon their home country, the majority of
them settling in North America with the result that today some 40 million Americans claim Irish
ancestry. Globally, the Irish diaspora is estimated at more than 70 million people. Burke said the idea
for the business - whose Web site