This research strongly supports the idea that soil C stocks are stable under permanent pasture. They are not influenced by P fertiliser inputs and sheep grazing but are influenced by slope and aspect. Understanding landscape attributes is an important factor in assessing soil C stocks. A spatial nutrient budget model was developed. The model could form the basis of a farm scale C accounting tool by linking the soil C measurements to the animal production system.

Keywords: soil carbon, slope, phosphorus, sheep, ballantrae, greenhouse gas, fertiliser

Climate change is expected to have direct and indirect effects on livestock welfare and health. This report identifies livestock diseases of concern for New Zealand that are likely to be impacted by climate change in terms of incidence, severity or distribution. The review showed that parasitic diseases with a free-living stage and infectious disease caused by an agent that can survive outside the host had the highest climate sensitivity and are hence more likely to be affected by climate change.

MPI Technical Paper No: 2019/07

This project was developed from a Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) Sustainable Land
Management and Climate Change Request for Proposals (RFP) release in October 2014. That RFP requested submissions on ‘Capturing LiDAR data for Northland region and using this to remap the Land Resource Inventory and Land Use Capability for the region’. Indicative funding available for the RFP was approximately $300,000.

In this report, we use expert knowledge and spatial data on the extent and types of erosion initiated during previous storms as the basis for assessing the erosion susceptibility for the current exotic forest estate in the East Coast region and – in more detail – for four currently forested study sites in the likely event that they will be subjected to episodic storms at some stage during the rotation cycle of P. radiata (~27–30 years). Furthermore, by selecting study sites within two lithologically and structurally contrasting terrains, we identify geologic and topographic factors that influence the development rate and type of erosion process that ultimately determines the degree of susceptibility (low to very high) of different areas within and between study sites.

This report contains the literature review, and will focus on the possible benefits and limitations of land-use options on long-term erosion control under climate change. The review will summarise current national and international (where appropriate) literature, identify knowledge gaps, and recommend parameters for modelling.

This research project tests the hypothesis that (i) increased root growth of selected deeper rooting pasture species, stimulated by biochar (a form of charcoal) application at the base of the normal root zone, will accelerate the accumulation of the root-derived carbon, and (ii) the soil carbon sink will be increased because root-derived carbon will be stabilised in the more C unsaturated subsoil.