podocarp

Canterbury’s gravelly outwash plains offer few of the natural deposits in which floral remains are typically preserved and hence represent a significant geographical gap in our knowledge about New Zealand’s pre-settlement terrestrial ecosystems and their response to anthropogenic activities. We contribute new insights into the poorly known Holocene vegetation history of this region by reporting two new mid-late Holocene pollen records from the western (Hallsbush) and eastern (Travis Swamp) margins of the Canterbury Plains.

The seasonal diet of ship rats in a stand of lowland podocarp-rata-broadleaf forest in North Island, New Zealand, was studied from analysis of 173 stomachs, 46 fresh droppings and 10 feeding trials. Arthropods, particularly tree wetas (Order Orthoptera), were the main foods in spring and summer, while drupes, berries and nuts predominated in autumn and winter. Birds were not an important food. Seasonal variations in the diet were related to the seasonal abundance of these foods in the forest

This study uses data from repeatedly measured forest monitoring plots (20 × 20 m) (n = 32) and nine ungulate exclosures (paired fenced and unfenced plots; 20 × 20 m) to show the effects of introduced ungulates on tree regeneration in Pureora Forest Park, central North Island, between 974 and 2002.