New Zealand Journal of Botany abstract

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The impact of human settlement on vegetation and soil stability in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand

JANET M. WILMSHURST

Zoology Department
University of Canterbury
Private Bag 4800
Christchurch, New Zealand
Present address: Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research, P. O. Box 69, Lincoln 8152, New Zealand

Abstract  Widespread destruction of lowland podocarp/hardwood forests in Hawke's Bay followed permanent Maori settlement of the region. Forests cleared by fires were rapidly replaced with a bracken fern-scrubland which remained the predominant vegetation until European settlers cleared it away for pasture production in the late 1870s. Deforestation began about 500 calendar years B.P., but proceeded faster in the drier lowlands than in the wetter hill country. When the catchments were covered with either forest or fern-scrubland, soil erosion was minimal because the soil structure was maintained by the network of roots and protected from raindrop impact by a dense canopy. The main effect of storms before European settlement was to transport pulses of mostly riverbank sediment into the lakes. However, after European settlement, soil erosion increased markedly. Removal of soil stabilising vegetation and its replacement with pasture has left soft-rock hill country soils vulnerable to erosion and landslides.

Keywords  Maori; European; settlement; deforestation; erosion; lake sediment; pollen; charcoal

B95052

Received 1 November 1995; accepted 21 August 1996

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (1038K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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