Agricultural intensification has enhanced productivity but has also negatively affected soil structure and environmental outcomes. Agriculture is among New Zealand’s largest industries. Like other countries, significant land use intensification over the last 20–30 years has occurred in NZ, resulting in undesirable side-effect of soil structural degradation (SSD) (e.g., soil compaction, aggregate fragmentation). (W. Hu et al., 2021)
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Soil structure is associated with a range of ecosystem services such as storage and filtering of water, biomass production, nutrient cycling, carbon storage, soil biodiversity, and physical stability and support (Rabot et al., 2018).
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Degraded soil structure can restrict the movement of air, water and heat in soils thereby limiting biological and economic productivity. (W. Hu et al., 2021)
Soil compaction is monitored in the Soil Quality Monitoring Programme. Measures of bulk density and microporosity help to explain the degree of compaction in a sample. More compact soils are found in dairy and viticultural soils and this is related to either stock treading or vehicle traffic. Some soils can be too loose due to cultivation or disturbance and this is commonly noted in cropping or forestry soils. Pastoral soils typically have less compaction and this is related to lower stocking density and less cultivation.
Two targeted studies were undertaken in 2011 and 2012 to determine the extent of soil compaction across some dairy pasture and drystock pasture sites. At each site, soils were analysed for macroporosity and bulk density (two measures of soil compaction/pugging) and also extractable phosphorous.
