Effects on New Zealand Vegetation of Late Holocene Erosion and Alluvial Sedimentation
During the last 1800 years there have been eight periods of increased erosion and alluvial sedimentation in New Zealand, which have generally decreased in magnitude towards the present. Throughout New Zealand, alluvium of all erosion periods contains abundant remains of plants as evidence of widespread destruction of vegetation during erosion periods. Indices of the relative magnitude of alluviation, and estimates of the damage to vegetation in the current Waipawa Period (since 1950), are applied to estimate the impact of earlier erosion periods.