New Zealand Journal of Botany abstracts
The conservation status of New Zealand’s indigenous grasslands
Alan F. Mark
Department of Botany
University of Otago
PO Box 56
Dunedin New Zealand
amark@otago.ac.nz
Bruce Mclennan
Department of Information Science
University of Otago
P.O. Box 56
Dunedin, New Zealand
Abstract The conservation status of New Zealand’s
indigenous grasslands was assessed against an 1840 baseline,
immediately prior to European settlement, when they were of maximum
extent. Five major types were recognised, four of them tussock
grasslands. The assumed baseline extent of areas with at least some
grassland dominance was mapped on the basis of the best available
information. Their current extent was derived from the “tussock”
category in Land Cover Data Base 1 map (typed as for the baseline map)
and the areas formally protected (as at September 2002) from Department
of Conservation records. Ecological region boundaries were added and
the map information scanned and compiled using ArcGIS. North Island
areas were also assessed as one unit while South Island was divided
into three geographic regions based on general land use patterns:
western wet non-rangeland, rain-shadow rangeland, and eastern lower
altitude non-rangeland regions.
Of the total baseline extent of indigenous grasslands (82
432 km2 or c. 31% of the land area), about 13%
was low-alpine snow tussock grassland, 18% montane to subalpine snow
tussock grassland, 23% montane to low-alpine tall red/copper tussock
grassland, 44% montane to subalpine short-tussock grassland, and c. 2%
lowland sward grassland. Most grassland (57%) was in the South Island
rangeland region which also had the greatest extent of all four major
tussock grassland types. Remaining areas of each grassland type vary
largely with altitude and climate, the drier lower-elevation grasslands
showing the greatest reduction. Protection of the remaining indigenous
grasslands, with various degrees of modification and/or degradation, is
greatest in the South Island wet western region (89% of the 98% which
remained as of September 2002), with less in the North Island (40% of
the remaining 17%), and eastern South Island non-rangeland region (11%
of the remaining 3%). Grassland protection in the rangelands (12% of
the remaining 76%) is currently increasing through tenure review of the
Crown-owned pastoral leases in this region.
Indigenous temperate grasslands, claimed to be the world’s most
beleaguered biome (currently 4.59% protected), attain about 12.3%
protection of the baseline area in New Zealand (or 28% of the 44% of
remaining baseline extent), though biased towards the uplands. Data
sets are available as ArcGIS shape files for indigenous grasslands at
both 2002 and 1840, on an ecological region basis, as well as for
high-alpine and nival areas for the same periods and regions.
Keywords conservation; indigenous grasslands; land
use; pastoral leasehold; preservation; protected areas network
B04014; Received 26 April 2004; accepted 21 December 2004; Online
publication date 17 March 2005
New Zealand Journal of Botany, 2005, Vol. 43: 245–270
0028–825X/05/4301–0245 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2005
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