Traditionally, New Zealand pastoral farmers have adapted their farming systems in response to extreme climatic events. This project will research these responses to provide information on how farmers could (and should) adapt to the extreme climatic events that may result from climate change.

Traditionally, New Zealand pastoral farmers have adapted their farming systems in response to extreme climatic events. This project will research these responses to provide information on how farmers could (and should) adapt to the extreme climatic events that may result from climate change.

The purpose of this report is to draw out key lessons on how science and environmental knowledge have been used in the past to achieve desired environmental outcomes. Phase Three covers the final stage and is an account of observations made during the process of discussing the research findings with the key stakeholders. three topic areas of soil erosion, pest control and nitrogen management.

This report identifies novel mitigation strategies for reducing nitrous oxide emissions from ruminant urine patches and aims to identify the microbial nitrous oxide emission pathway affected by the mitigation strategy.

This report provides new data on soil CH4 oxidation in reverting shrubland. It describes new research, using recently acquired knowledge of the mechanisms regulating soil CH4 oxidation, to develop a practical technology for capturing emissions from housed animals, effluent ponds, and landfills.

This report, commissioned by MAF, assesses a selected range of policy instruments for mitigation of greenhouse gases in agriculture. The report assesses these options against evaluation criteria and looks at short-term options and longer term strategy.

The goal of this project is to assess whether wetlands in the agricultural landscape receiving nitrogen-rich leachate are a significant source of nitrous oxide emissions in relation to inventory estimates on nitrous oxide emitted from agriculture.

Goal: Improving the confidence in the effectiveness of the nitrification inhibitor DCD as a novel nitrous oxide mitigation technology in a wider range of key dairying soils and as affected by rainfall or irrigation.

The goal of this project is to test the concept that modifications to an existing urine sensor will allow the quantification of urinary nitrogen concentration of individual urination events by grazing sheep. Future use of this tool may then enable quantification of nitrogen load in urine patches which is the precursor of nitrous oxide emissions.

This project aims to design and build automated N2O gas chambers that will be added to the existing automated and mobile gas analysis system to provide a fully automated system for rapid assessment of in-field N2O emissions.

The goal of this research is to construct four sheep calorimeters as well as a prototype calorimeter for cattle to provide New Zealand with world class facilities for the rapid and highly accurate measurement of methane (CH4) emissions from forage fed ruminants.

The goal is to construct a 'state of the art' continuous flow fermentation system for use by rumen microbiologists/rumen nutritionists in order to speed up work on developing mitigation solutions for enteric methane emissions from ruminants.

This report aims to generate productivity surfaces for indigenous forest species and Pinus radiata for New Zealand. These surfaces were generated for current and anticipated future climatic conditions for pinus radiata. For indigenous forests, the work used predictive modelling techniques to produce spatial models of tree diameter increment. Estimating the growth rate of these forests accurately will enable optimal siting of future plantations and enhance national policy formulation.

Note, while this document is marked 'confidential', it has since been approved for public release.

This report gathers new above-and below-ground biomass and wood density data for Eucalyptus fastigata for carbon model development, required under NZ’s obligations to the Kyoto Protocol. The biomass work was done in conjunction with a survey of wood density and soil nitrogen fertility undertaken in trials of various ages throughout New Zealand. The entire data set will be used to develop a national carbon growth model for Eucalyptus fastigata in New Zealand.

Note, while this document is marked 'confidential', it has since been approved for public release.

Carbon sequestration in plantation forests can be used to offset greenhouse gas emissions to meet New Zealand's international climate change obligations in the Kyoto Protocol. Although Pinus radiata grows quickly, species with higher wood density, such as Eucalyptus fastigata, are likely to be more suitable for plantations aimed at carbon sequestration. The aim of this study was to provide robust tools and models for predicting carbon sequestration for Eucalyptus fastigata.

Note, while this document is marked 'confidential', it has since been approved for public release.

This research projects the potential distribution of four high-impact invasive species under three contrasting climate change models with medium and high emission scenarios. The pest species currently in New Zealand are Buddleja davidii Franchet and Dothistroma needle blight. The potential threats are pitch canker (Fusarium circinatum), and the insect Thaumetopoea pityocampa (pine processionary moth).