New Zealand Journal of Botany abstract
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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