A review of some important soil studies in Papua New Guinea.

Abstract

This paper attempts to provide an appreciation of the variety of soil studies that have been undertaken in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The main themes considered and the reasons why they were investigated include: (i) land evaluation, in which considerable contribution has been made in assessing suitability of various cash crops at plantation and smallholder levels; (ii) land system mapping, where the results were built into a robust natural resource database and eventually linked to a GIS that covers the whole country on a scale of 1:0.5 M; (Hi) soil erosion studies, where the results indicate low to modest soil loss rates despite high rainfall and high relief over much of the country; (iv) soil conservation, in which it was found that over much of the country the traditional conservation practices are based on the principal of removing water without causing erosion rather than retaining water; (v) soil fertility, especially the problems concerning the interpretation of data and highlighting the variety of approaches used to evaluate nutrient and yield decline and recovery on traditional garden plots; (vi) soils and human health, which though an unusual topic identify issues worthy of further research; and (vii) pedogenesis, in which latosols are used as the main example though references to other soil types. The problem of the difficult terminology especially with regards to soil classification is highlighted.