Sustainable land use
Science programme: Sustainable land use
New Zealand ’s productive landscapes and natural estate are vitally dependent on the value of the natural capital of our soils, water and biodiversity. New Zealand ’s horticultural systems seek to create premium fruit products through sustainable production that exploits the value of the natural capital of our soil and water resources. Sustainability is about maintaining and enhancing the value of our soil and water resources.
HortResearch’s Sustainable Land Use team develops sustainable strategies for efficient irrigation, plant nutrition and agrichemical management. Water management is intricately linked to the fate of nutrients and pesticides in these systems.
We promote effective use of water resources and our solutions also protect ground and surface water from fertilisers and pesticides.
Environmental concerns are also at the heart of research conducted by our Sustainable Land Use team. Their work is dominated by two strategic programmes: the first, the multi-CRI Sustainable Land Use Research Initiative (SLURI), has been characterised by new external collaborations, and the second, the Biodigital programme, has been successful through a high degree of internal cooperation across our science teams.
SLURI is a large programme based on soil-science and land-use research. Funded by the Foundation for Research Science and Technology as well as commercial funders, SLURI brings together scientists from HortResearch, Crop & Food Research, Landcare Research, and AgResearch. (For more on SLURI see www.sluri.org.nz )
The Biodigital programme is developing tools and technologies for sustainable horticultural production systems. Entomologists, pathologists and physiologists from various science teams have worked with physicists, modellers and GIS scientists, to produce tools for the regional prediction of disease risk in grapes and the timing of the severity of scale infestation in kiwifruit. Modelling and life cycle assessment tools have also been used to examine the impact of waste recycling in viticultural systems.
The Sustainable Land Use team contributes significantly to keeping New Zealand 's environment clean, healthy and productive. Our work is integrated with other research programmes with HortResearch.
The Sustainable Land Use team’s science encompasses three areas:
- Land and Water Management
- Soil and Water Monitoring
- Risk Assessment Modelling
For a better understanding of our works, we recommend the following documents:
Green, SR; Vogeler, I; Clothier, BE; Mills, TM; van den Dijssel, C
Modelling water uptake by a mature apple tree
AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF SOIL RESEARCH, 41 (3): 365-380 2003
Clothier, BE; Green, SR
Roots: The big movers or water and chemical in soil
SOIL SCIENCE, 162 (8): 534-543 AUG 1997
van der Velde, M; Green, SR; Gee, GW; Vanclooster, M; Clothier, BE
Evaluation of drainage from passive suction and nonsuction flux meters in a volcanic clay soil under tropical conditionsVADOSE ZONE JOURNAL, 4 (4): 1201-1209 NOV 2005
Vogeler, I; Green, SR; Scotter, DR; Clothier, BE
Measuring and modelling the transport and root uptake of chemicals in the unsaturated zone
PLANT AND SOIL, 231 (2): 161-174 APR 2001
Contact Brent Clothier
|
