plant species density

Complementarity of indigenous flora in shrublands and grasslands in a New Zealand dryland landscape

Succession from fire-induced grassland to secondary shrubland vegetation is occurring in parts of deforested dry eastern South Island, New Zealand, but little is known about how the change from herbaceous to woody vegetation alters the indigenous biota. We predicted that development of secondary shrublands would exclude few grassland-specialist plant species and increase indigenous plant ‘species occupancy’ (the extent to which indigenous species capable of living in dryland landscapes are present) at a landscape scale.