9  Soils

9.1 Soils in New Zealand

Most parts of New Zealand have at least some existing soils knowledge documented in various forms. These resources can be a valuable starting point when conducting new research or survey work.

9.1.1 Māori soil knowledge

The traditional Māori understanding of soils and its development into modern systems can be explored in Harmsworth and Roskruge (2014a); Harmsworth and Roskruge (2014b); Harmsworth (2022).

9.1.2 Legacy soil mapping

Post-settlement soil mapping in New Zealand started as early as the 1910s. Many of these records have been digitised and can be explored on the Manaaki Whenua Legacy Map Viewer. Accompanying reports are available from the Manaaki Whenua Digital Library. Pātaka Oneone, the Manaaki Whenua Soils Portal, offers many more resources for accessing knowledge about New Zealand’s soils.

9.1.3 Modern soil mapping

The flagship regional-scale soil mapping product for New Zealand is the S-Map. Information about S-Map, including a web-based interactive map, is available at S-Map Online.

9.1.4 Books about New Zealand Soils

The reader is encouraged to explore the reference list for this description standard. General references of particular value are Soils in the New Zealand Landscape: The Living Mantle (Molloy 1988), which is available for download from the New Zealand Soil Science Society, and The Soils of Aotearoa New Zealand (Hewitt et al. 2021).

Harmsworth GR 2022. Soil security: An indigenous Māori perspective from Aotearoa-New Zealand. Soil security. Palmerston North, New Zealand.

Harmsworth GR, Roskruge N 2014a. Indigenous Māori Values, Perspectives, and Knowledge of Soils in Aotearoa-New Zealand A. Beliefs, and Concepts of Soils, the Environment, and Land. In: Churchman JG, Landa ER, editors. [place unknown]: CRC Press; p. 112–124.

Harmsworth GR, Roskruge N 2014b. Indigenous Māori Values, Perspectives, and Knowledge of Soils in Aotearoa-New Zealand A. Beliefs, and Concepts of Soils, the Environment, and Land. In: Churchman JG, Landa ER, editors. [place unknown]: CRC Press; p. 112–124.

Hewitt AE, Balks MR, Lowe DJ 2021. The soils of aotearoa new zealand. [Internet]. 1st ed. Switzerland: Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64763-6

Molloy L 1988. The living mantle: Soils in the new zealand landscape. [Internet]. 2nd ed. Wellington, New Zealand: Mallinson Rendel. https://nzsss.science.org.nz/books/