New Zealand Journal of Botany abstracts

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Drought effect on high-altitude forests, Ruahine Range, North Island, New Zealand

PATRICK J. GRANT

Water and Soil Division
Ministry of Works and Development
Private Bag, Napier, New Zealand

Abstract Shortly before 1917 abnormally high mortality of canopy trees occurred up to the timberline, c. 1470 m, in the central Ruahine Range. Rainfall records and historical observations indi- cate that this resulted from intense drought during 1914-15. Despite the drought damage and the impact of deer, the forest regenerated and after 1915 no major source area of coarse sediment developed in Centre Branch of the Waipawa Basin. Forest recovery at the head of the upper Waipawa Basin has produced a timberline which is c. 90 m lower than it was before 1915. On most of the Ruahine Range there is evidence of a recent lowering of timberline which probably also resulted from the 1914-15 drought and which is not associated with decrease of temperature.

Keywords drought; wind; temperature; erosion; timberline; browsing animals; Nothofagus; Ruahine Range, New Zealand

Received 11 July 1983; accepted 20 September 1983
New Zealand Journal of Botany, 1984, Vol. 22: 15-27
0028-825X/84/2201-0015$2.50/0 © Crown copyright 1984 15

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (3678K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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