[First paragraphs...]
Soils are of interest to students of ecology in two ways for not only do the soil conditions influence the flora and fauna of any particular area but in their turn the flora and fauna also modify the soils. This intimate inter-relationship merits ecological study.
[First paragraphs...]
The geology of Waiheke, Ponui, Motuihe, Motutapu, Rangitoto, and associated islands (Fig. 1) can not be considered separately from that of the adjacent Waitemata Harbour and Auckland Isthmus, for their lithology, structure, and geologic history are intimately connected.
[First paragraph...]
[First paragraphs...]
[First paragraphs...]
[First paragraphs...]
In 1953 and 1954 in the Auckland district and in 1956 throughout the North Island, Pinus radiata on farms and urban properties suffered from a spectacular disease causing death or defoliation. Symptoms were caused by a group of soil fungi belonging to the genus Phytophthora.
[First paragraphs...]
Since September, 1958, a study of bird populations has been made in Dunedin in order to determine the pattern of ecological distribution and the population structure of native and introduced species of birds in a modified South Island habitat.
Acknowledgement is made to the Botanic Gardens authority in Dunedin for making accessible to me the upper part of the Gardens in which this work was undertaken, and to the staff of the Botany Department of Otago University for help with the identification of the plants.
[First paragraph...]
The Hutt Valley system consists of three fault-angle depressions, the Port Nicholson-Lower Hutt depression, the Trentham Basin, and the Kaitoke Basin, lying on the south-eastern downthrow side of a major transcurrent north-east trending still active fault called in this area the Wellington Fault
[First paragraph...]
The soils of the Hutt Valley can be described in three groups according to their occurrence on either (1) river flats, swamps and sand dunes or (2) terrace lands or (3) moderately steep hillsides occupy approximately 80% of the district whereas the other two divisions each total about 10% of the area.
[First paragraphs...]
It is proposed to present here a summary, based largely on the literature, of knowledge to date of a number of aspects of the fauna which may be of interest to zoogeographers, ecologists and marine biologists in general.
