Soil and landscape processes underpin both the productivity and health of New Zealand's land and freshwater ecosystems. They provide ecosystem and productive services on which our primary industries and infrastructure rely, act as the platform for communities to live, work and play, as well as underpinning a national identity on which our culture and tourist trade is based.
The Manaaki Whenua Soils Portal provides you with access to information held by Manaaki Whenua on New Zealand's soils. From this site you can access data from the National Soils Database, Fundamental Soils Layers, Digital Soil Surveys and S-map database. There is also a wealth of explanatory information about current and historical soil-naming schemes used in New Zealand.
New Book on New Zealand soils
Dr Megan Balks and Prof David Lowe (both from the Earth sciences group, School of Science, University of Waikato, Hamilton) have teamed up with Dr Allan Hewitt (Manaaki Whenua–Landcare Research, Lincoln) to write a book on the soils of New Zealand. Published by Springer in February 2021, the book is the first general text on the soils of New Zealand to be published in more than 30 years.
