The long-term conservation of forest diversity in New Zealand

1995 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 77 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Ogden
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Alpha Diversity ◽  
Forest Diversity ◽  
Forest Reserves ◽  
Introduced Plants ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Average Loss ◽  
Endemic Flora

The largely endemic flora of New Zealand is a remnant of the Cretaceous flora of Gondwana, supplemented by later additions from Australia and the tropics. Semi-natural plant communities cover about 50% of the country, and a scheme for the protection of supposedly representative areas is in place. Existing reserves do not adequately reflect the patterns of plant species diversity. Many are modified by introduced animals and alien plants. The latter are being actively introduced into New Zealand at the rate of c. 11 species per year. Measures of diversity are discussed and the broad pattern of (gamma) diversity and endemicity in the country is described. A comparison is made between (alpha) diversity levels in Beech Nothofagus solandri var. cliffortioidesand Kauri Agathis australisforest. Within each of these two forest types there are similar levels of alpha-diversity over a wide range of latitude. Altitudinal alpha-diversity trends indicate an average loss of 3.4 species per 100 m of altitude. This can be accounted for by the reduction of land surface area with increasing altitude on conical or ridge-shaped mountains. The altitudinal data emphasize the importance of the lowlands in the conservation of bio-diversity. The Holocene history of the forests in New Zealand suggests that the concept of "representativeness" is flawed: forest varies continuously in time and space. It may be possible to create some "living museums" of the past biota of New Zealand, but unless there are radical changes in our ability to eradicate animal pests and introduced plants, the composition of mainland forest reserves in the lowlands will change dramatically over the next few centuries. Conservation effort on saving endangered birds may have been at the expense of long-term "habitat" survival on the mainland.

scholarly journals Analysis of a 39-year continuous atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> record from Baring Head, New Zealand

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 2683-2697 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. B. Stephens ◽  
G. W. Brailsford ◽  
A. J. Gomez ◽  
K. Riedel ◽  
S. E. Mikaloff Fletcher ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Southern Ocean ◽  
Seasonal Cycle ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Atmospheric Co2 ◽  
Co2 Uptake ◽  
South Pole ◽  
The South ◽  
Wide Range

Abstract. We present an analysis of a 39-year record of continuous atmospheric CO2 observations made at Baring Head, New Zealand, filtered for steady background CO2 mole fractions during southerly wind conditions. We discuss relationships between variability in the filtered CO2 time series and regional to global carbon cycling. Baring Head is well situated to sample air that has been isolated from terrestrial influences over the Southern Ocean, and experiences extended episodes of strong southerly winds with low CO2 variability. The filtered Baring Head CO2 record reveals an average seasonal cycle with amplitude of 0.95 ppm that is 13% smaller and 3 weeks earlier in phase than that at the South Pole. Seasonal variations in a given year are sensitive to the timing and magnitude of the combined influences of Southern Ocean CO2 fluxes and terrestrial fluxes from both hemispheres. The amplitude of the seasonal cycle varies throughout the record, but we find no significant long-term seasonal changes with respect to the South Pole. Interannual variations in CO2 growth rate in the Baring Head record closely match the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, reflecting the global reach of CO2 mole fraction anomalies associated with this cycle. We use atmospheric transport model results to investigate contributions to seasonal and annual-mean components of the observed CO2 record. Long-term trends in mean gradients between Baring Head and other stations are predominately due to increases in Northern Hemisphere fossil-fuel burning and Southern Ocean CO2 uptake, for which there remains a wide range of future estimates. We find that the postulated recent reduction in the efficiency of Southern Ocean anthropogenic CO2 uptake, as a result of increased zonal winds, is too small to be detectable as significant differences in atmospheric CO2 between mid to high latitude Southern Hemisphere observing stations.

scholarly journals Analysis of a 39-yr continuous atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> record from Baring Head, New Zealand

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 15237-15277 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. B. Stephens ◽  
G. W. Brailsford ◽  
A. J. Gomez ◽  
K. Riedel ◽  
S. E. Mikaloff Fletcher ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Southern Ocean ◽  
Seasonal Cycle ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Atmospheric Co2 ◽  
Co2 Uptake ◽  
South Pole ◽  
The South ◽  
Wide Range

Abstract. We present an analysis of a 39-yr record of continuous atmospheric CO2 observations made at Baring Head, New Zealand, filtered for steady CO2 mole fractions during southerly wind conditions. We discuss relationships between variability in the filtered CO2 time series and regional to global carbon cycling. Baring Head is well situated to sample air that has been isolated from terrestrial influences over the Southern Ocean, and experiences extended periods of strong southerly winds with low CO2 variability. The filtered Baring Head CO2 record reveals an average seasonal cycle with amplitude of 0.95 ppm that is 13% smaller and 3 weeks earlier in phase than that at the South Pole. Seasonal variations in a given year are sensitive to the timing and magnitude of the combined influences of Southern Ocean CO2 fluxes and terrestrial fluxes from both hemispheres. The amplitude of the seasonal cycle varies throughout the record, but we find no significant long-term seasonal changes with respect to the South Pole. Interannual variations in CO2 growth rate in the Baring Head record closely match the El Niño/Southern Oscillation, reflecting the global reach of CO2 mole fraction anomalies associated with this cycle. We use atmospheric transport model results to investigate contributions to seasonal and annual-mean components of the observed CO2 record. Long-term trends in mean gradients between Baring Head and other stations are predominately due to increases in Northern-Hemisphere fossil-fuel burning and Southern Ocean CO2 uptake, for which there remains a wide range of future estimates. We find that the postulated recent reduction in the efficiency of Southern Ocean anthropogenic CO2 uptake as a result of increased zonal winds is too small to be detectable as significant differences in atmospheric CO2 between mid- to high-latitude Southern Hemisphere observing stations.

scholarly journals New Zealand Apartment Living: Developing a Liveability Evaluation Index

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jessica Bennett
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality ◽  
User Friendliness ◽  
The Public ◽  
Academic Knowledge ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Major Shift ◽  
Fit For Purpose ◽  
Acoustic Environments

<p>Over the past decade there has been a major shift in the housing preferences of New Zealanders away from low density, suburban, stand-alone housing towards higher density, urban apartments. As more people experience this style of accommodation, liveability issues have become apparent. An international literature review has found a gap between the research-based academic knowledge and the expectations of prospective occupants as represented by the national, popular press. For occupants their crucial issues are readily assessable (e.g. spatial and visual design), but often these issues do not have direct or long term health effects. The academic literature minimises these issues while placing importance on health and liveability issues (e.g. thermal and acoustic environments). This thesis presents the development of an assessment methodology to enable prospective buyers/tenants to easily and quickly evaluate and compare apartment liveability over a wide range of indicators, not just those of immediate concern. The New Zealand Apartment Liveability Index [NZ ALI] considers over 100 factors that influence liveability in higher density housing and presents this information in a simple, easily understandable format. The indicators have been organised into a weighted hierarchal system divided into five main categories: Community; Configuration; Governance; Indoor Environmental Quality; and Quality. There are 332 components within the New Zealand Apartment Liveability Index and all are weighted in order to provide a simple Liveability Rating (single score) or Liveability Profile (performance profile). Six criteria were applied in the development of the New Zealand Apartment Liveability Index to ensure that it is fit for purpose. The development criteria considered relevancy to liveability, objectivity & practicality of assessments, accuracy of evaluations, and generality & user friendliness of the tool. The New Zealand Apartment Liveability Index is intended to provide the public with a simple, easy to use tool to help them make informed decisions when purchasing or leasing apartments. It will also be of value to regulatory agencies to help better understand the minimum liveability standards for apartments, as well as to designers and developers to help them better meet the needs of their current clients and future building users.</p>

scholarly journals Fiscal and other risks over the long term

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Upton
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Radar Screen ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Fiscal Prudence

After 13 years’ absence from any involvement in public life in New Zealand it has been a welcome challenge to re-immerse myself in issues with which I used to be familiar. I’d like to focus this article on why we should see the Treasury’s review of the government’s long-term fiscal outlook as an exercise in managing a wide range of risks under conditions of significant uncertainty; and how, from a political point of view, one might seek to stop the need for fiscal prudence sliding off the radar screen. 

Effects of Long-Term Preconditioning on Growth and Flowering of Some Snow Tussock (Chionochloa Spp.) Populations in Otago, New Zealand

1979 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 617 ◽  
Author(s):  
DH Greer
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Growth Rates ◽  
Threshold Temperature ◽  
Critical Threshold ◽  
Physiological Plasticity ◽  
Subsequent Growth ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Flowering Behaviour ◽  
High Degree

Clone members of each of three altitudinal populations (910-1590 m) of two ecologically important snow tussocks (Chionochloa macra and C. rigida) reciprocally transplanted to four sites (10-1590 m) in 1960 were further subdivided and re-reciprocally transplanted to the same four sites in 1974 and their subsequent growth and flowering behaviour followed over two seasons. Interpopulation differences in stature and growth rates remained distinct after the 14-year intervening period, reinforcing earlier evidence for some genetic control of these characters. In contrast, the flowering of each population at each site had converged towards that of the resident plants, which indicated some adjustment to the critical threshold temperature for flowering. Interpopulation differences in flowering behaviour could not, therefore, be strictly controlled genetically as had been previously assumed. No interpopulation differences emerged as a result of 14 years of preconditioning in diverse environments. Furthermore, the preconditioning had a negligible effect on the subsequent perfor- mance of each population in a wide range of temperature environments. Distinct differences in growth rates between a lowland coastal population of C. rigida and its alpine counterparts appear adaptive, suggesting differentiation of a lowland ecotype. The high degree of physiological plasticity inherent in all populations of snow tussock studied may have its origin in the climatically diverse post-Pleistocene period when genotypes with maximum flexibility may have been selected preferentially. Since then, probably as a result of expansion of snow tussock grasslands within the last millenium, local adaptive variants have evolved.

scholarly journals New Zealand Apartment Living: Developing a Liveability Evaluation Index

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jessica Bennett
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality ◽  
User Friendliness ◽  
The Public ◽  
Academic Knowledge ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Major Shift ◽  
Fit For Purpose ◽  
Acoustic Environments

<p>Over the past decade there has been a major shift in the housing preferences of New Zealanders away from low density, suburban, stand-alone housing towards higher density, urban apartments. As more people experience this style of accommodation, liveability issues have become apparent. An international literature review has found a gap between the research-based academic knowledge and the expectations of prospective occupants as represented by the national, popular press. For occupants their crucial issues are readily assessable (e.g. spatial and visual design), but often these issues do not have direct or long term health effects. The academic literature minimises these issues while placing importance on health and liveability issues (e.g. thermal and acoustic environments). This thesis presents the development of an assessment methodology to enable prospective buyers/tenants to easily and quickly evaluate and compare apartment liveability over a wide range of indicators, not just those of immediate concern. The New Zealand Apartment Liveability Index [NZ ALI] considers over 100 factors that influence liveability in higher density housing and presents this information in a simple, easily understandable format. The indicators have been organised into a weighted hierarchal system divided into five main categories: Community; Configuration; Governance; Indoor Environmental Quality; and Quality. There are 332 components within the New Zealand Apartment Liveability Index and all are weighted in order to provide a simple Liveability Rating (single score) or Liveability Profile (performance profile). Six criteria were applied in the development of the New Zealand Apartment Liveability Index to ensure that it is fit for purpose. The development criteria considered relevancy to liveability, objectivity & practicality of assessments, accuracy of evaluations, and generality & user friendliness of the tool. The New Zealand Apartment Liveability Index is intended to provide the public with a simple, easy to use tool to help them make informed decisions when purchasing or leasing apartments. It will also be of value to regulatory agencies to help better understand the minimum liveability standards for apartments, as well as to designers and developers to help them better meet the needs of their current clients and future building users.</p>

scholarly journals The AquiFR hydrometeorological modelling platform as a tool for improving groundwater resource monitoring over France: evaluation over a 60 year period

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Pierre Vergnes ◽  
Nicolas Roux ◽  
Florence Habets ◽  
Philippe Ackerer ◽  
Nadia Amraoui ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Groundwater Resource ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Operational Mode ◽  
Seasonal Forecasts ◽  
Resource Monitoring ◽  
Aquifer Systems ◽  
Wide Range

Abstract. The new AquiFR hydometeorological modelling platform was developed to provide short to long-term forecasts for groundwater resource management in France. The present study aims to describe and assess this new tool over a long-term period of 60 years. This platform gathers in a single numerical tool different hydrogeological models covering much of the French metropolitan area. Eleven aquifer systems are simulated through spatially distributed models using either the MARTHE groundwater modelling software or the EauDyssée hydrogeological platform. Twenty-three karstic systems are simulated by lumped models using the EROS software. AquiFR computes the groundwater level, the groundwater surface water exchanges, and the river flows at multiple river gauging stations. A simulation covering a 60 year period from 1958 to 2018 is achieved in order to evaluate the performance of this platform. The 8 km resolution SAFRAN meteorological reanalysis provides the atmospheric variables needed by the SURFEX land surface model in order tocompute surface runoff that are used by all the hydrogeological models. The assessment is based on a wide range of selected piezometers as well as gauging stations corresponding to simulated rivers and outlets of karstic systems. For the simulated piezometric heads, 40 % and 60 % of the absolute biases are lower than 2 m and 4 m respectively. The Standardized Piezometric Level Index (SPLI) was computed to assess the ability of AquiFR to identify extreme events such as groundwater flooding or droughts in long-term simulations over a set of piezometers used for groundwater resource management. 55 % of the Nash-Sutcliff scores calculated between the observed and simulated SPLI time series are greater than 0.5. Further work will focus on the use of this platform for short-term to seasonal forecasts in an operational mode and for climate change impact assessment.

Effects of carrot growing on volcanic ash soils in the Ohakune area, New Zealand

Soil Research ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 259
Author(s):  
L. R. Basher ◽  
C. W. Ross ◽  
J. Dando
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Volcanic Ash ◽  
Water Movement ◽  
Reference Value ◽  
Primary Control ◽  
Erosion And Deposition ◽  
Deposition Rates ◽  
Erosion Rates ◽  
Wide Range

Effects of intensive carrot production on soils derived from young volcanic ash were determined at Ohakune, New Zealand. Erosion rates (derived from caesium-137) and key soil physical and chemical properties were determined in 3 fields with differing management history (6 and 16 years cropping) or topography (sloping and flat).Caesium-137 areal activity in cropped fields ranged from 90 to 2034 Bq/m2, compared with a reference value under long-term pasture of 602 Bq/m2. Mean areal activity was lower than the reference value in 2 sloping fields, but not in a flat field. Net erosion rates were low in both sloping fields (–16 and –5 t/ha.year), but within each field there was a wide range of erosion and deposition rates (–109 to +293 t/ha.year in Field 1 and –145 to +514 t/ha.year in Field 2). These very high rates imply total soil losses up to 238 mm and deposition up to 670 mm, consistent with observed elevation differences between the cropped fields and adjacent fields in long-term pasture and with topsoil depth variation from 145 to 1165 mm. Tillage erosion and deposition rates are high (up to c. 40 t/ha.year) but water erosion is the dominant mechanism of soil redistribution.Cropping has reduced organic matter and aggregate stability, increased bulk density in the lower part of the topsoil and subsoil, and increased aggregate size. Hydraulic conductivity was higher in the topsoil and lower in the subsoil under cropping than it was under pasture. However, it would not limit soil water movement as it was higher than typical rainfall intensities. Compacted wheel tracks were the primary control on runoff and erosion as they have low infiltration rates (4 mm/h) compared with carrot beds (853 mm/h).

Plant mortality and seedling recruitment responses to flupropanate in grassland populations of Nassella trichotoma

2017 ◽  
Vol 70 ◽  
pp. 160-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
G.W. Bourdôt ◽  
S. Jackman ◽  
D.J. Saville
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Dose Response ◽  
Sodium Salt ◽  
Seedling Recruitment ◽  
Residual Activity ◽  
Application Rate ◽  
Plant Mortality ◽  
Complete Control ◽  
Bio Synthesis

Flupropanate (sodium 2,2,3,3 tetrafluoropropanate), a slow-acting lipid bio- synthesis-inhibiting herbicide, was recently registered in New Zealand as Taskforce (745 g/L flupropanate as the sodium salt) for the selective and long-term control of Nassella trichotoma (nassella tussock) in pastures. In five dose-response experiments in permanent hill pastures in Canterbury, conducted between 2012 and 2016, we measured the efficacy of the herbicide against established plants of N. trichotoma and its residual activity against recruiting seedlings. Mortality, as an average across the five sites, was 93% 1.5 years after applying 1.49 kg flupropanate/ha (the label-recommended rate), and 100% at 2.98 kg/ha. This indicates that an application rate higher than the label rate will be necessary for complete control of a N. trichotoma infestation. The presence of 1,000 and 6,250 visible seedlings of N. trichotoma/ha in the autumn 3.2 and 2.1 years after applying 1.49 kg flupropanate/ha (at a Greta Valley and Scargill site respectively) indicates that the herbicide’s soil residues had decayed within 12 months to a concentration lower than necessary to kill the germinating seedlings of N. trichotoma.

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