<i>Nothofagus</i>

Honeydew production by New Zealand beech scale insects (Ultracoelostoma spp., Hemiptera: Margarodidae) is widely considered to have a positive influence on native animal abundance and ecosystem functioning. As a first assessment of whether there is a positive relationship between honeydew throughfall and litter decomposition rates, we placed experimental litter bags in each of 10 high and 10 low honeydew plots in mixed southern beech (Nothofagus) forest at each of two sites, Lakehead and Rotoiti, in the Nelson Lakes National Park.

This study uses data from forty-nine 20 m × 20 m permanent plots measured in 1976, 1982, 1989 and 1997-2002 in Wakatipu Forest, western Otago. We relate changes in red (Nothofagus fusca), silver (Nothofagus menziesii) and mountain beech (Nothofagus solandri var. cliffortioides) forest vegetation to the presence of fallow deer (Dama dama). Vegetation composition is likely to have been altered prior to plot establishment, and results show that there was little change in vegetation composition during the study.

We examine the height growth, diameter growth and below-ground allocation responses of mountain beech (Nothofagus solandri var. cliffortioides) seedlings to the experimental removal of root competition through root trenching and the addition of fertiliser within relatively intact-canopied mountain beech forest in the Craigieburn Range, Canterbury. Trenching and trenching combined with fertiliser increased relative height and diameter growth of mountain beech seedlings above that of controls.

Honeydew excreted by phloem-sap sucking scale insects (Ultracoelostoma sp.) living in the bark of beech (Nothofagus solandri:) trees growing at a high elevation (900 m) site in the Craigieburn range of Canterbury, New Zealand, was measured over four days during 1–10 May 1996. Average standing crop of honeydew sugar was 3.1 mg m-2, and ranged from 0.4 to 5.5 mg m-2. Daily production of honeydew sugar ranged from 0.2 to 1.5 mg insect-1 24 h-1, and 4.1 to 45.9 mg m-2 24 h-1.

Sympatric orange-fronted (Cyanoramphus malherbi) and yellow-crowned parakeets (C. auriceps) were surveyed in a South Island beech (Nothofagusspp.) forest during the spring and summer of 1998/99. Habitat use, behaviour and diet were recorded for each parakeet identified. A single observer did all recording. Both species were seen most frequently in the upper-most 20% of the forest stratum. Orange-fronted parakeets were seen more frequently than yellow-crowned parakeets in the lowest 20% of the forest stratum.

The effect of honeydew density on arthropod community structure was investigated in the Nothofagus forest of Nelson Lakes National Park, New Zealand. Pitfall trapping revealed no community response to honeydew density, whereas sticky trapping showed the community composition of trunk-dwelling arthropods varied along a honeydew gradient. Mycetophilidae, Staphylinidae, Pteromalidae and Margarodidae were classified as high honeydew biased, while Diapriidae and Platygasteridae were non-honeydew biased.

We studied the ecology of a high-density population of stoats in Fiordland, New Zealand, in the summer and autumn of 1990-91 following a Nothofagus seeding in 1990. Results are compared with findings from the same area in 1991-92, a period of lower stoat density. In the high-density year, minimum home ranges (revealed by radio-tracking) of four females averaged 69 ha and those of three males 93 ha; range lengths averaged 1.3 km and 2.5 km respectively. Neither difference was statistically significant.

Home range and diet of stoats inhabiting beech forest were examined by trapping and radio-tracking. Eleven stoats (6 female, 5 male) were fitted with radio-transmitters. Minimum home ranges of five females averaged 124 ± 21 ha and of four males 206 ± 73 ha. Range lengths of females averaged 2.3 ± 0.3 km and of males 4.0 ± 0.9 km. These differences were not statistically significant. Adult female stoats appeared to have mutually exclusive home ranges. Two females and one male had home ranges that were bisected by the Eglinton River.

Variation in seedling growth and form between provenances of Podocarpus totara from 42 sites throughout New Zealand was investigated. Seedlings were grown for three years under uniform nursery conditions. There were significant differences between provenances in height growth in the first three years after sowing. Early growth was highly correlated with germination rate after sowing. In the third year, growth followed a different pattern and was negatively correlated with provenance latitude, i.e., provenances from southern latitudes grew more slowly than those from further north.

Relict forests within tussock grassland and abundant subsoil charcoal indicate that prior to Polynesian conflagrations, conifer forests dominated by kaikawaka covered the upper montane plateaux in Moawhango Ecological Region. Much forest remains in peripheral districts where the plateaux border the encircling Kaimanawa, Kaweka and Ruahine greywacke uplands; in these districts, beech forest of the ranges extends on to plateaux surfaces as a narrow, variable-width strip intermixed with conifer forest.