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Kopuatai Peat Dome
The Kopuatai Peat Dome is a large peatland complex on the Hauraki Plains in the North Island of New Zealand. It consists of two raised domes, one in the north and the other in the south, that are up to three metres higher at the center than at the edge. The wetland contains the largest intact raised bog in New Zealand and was listed under the Ramsar Convention in 1989 as a Wetland of International Importance. Most of the wetland is ombrotrophic, meaning it receives water and nutrient inputs solely from rain and is hydrologically isolated from the surrounding canals and rivers. Locally, a popular misconception persists that water flows from the nearby Piako River into the bog and that the wetland acts as a significant store for floodwater. History of the wetland Kopuatai has survived extensive draining of the wetlands on the Hauraki Plains and was given protection in 1987 when it came under the administration of the newly formed Department of Conservation. Scientific and co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Island
The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest island. The world's 28th-most-populous island, Te Ika-a-Māui has a population of accounting for approximately % of the total residents of New Zealand. Twelve main urban areas (half of them officially cities) are in the North Island. From north to south, they are Whangārei, Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua, Gisborne, New Plymouth, Napier, Hastings, Whanganui, Palmerston North, and New Zealand's capital city Wellington, which is located at the south-west tip of the island. Naming and usage Although the island has been known as the North Island for many years, in 2009 the New Zealand Geographic Board found that, along with the South Island, the North Island had no official name. After a public consultation, the board officially ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wetlands Of New Zealand
New Zealand has several notable wetlands but 90% of wetland areas have been lost following European settlement. The Resource Management Act 1991, the major Act of Parliament determining land use, defines wetlands as "permanently or intermittently wet areas, shallow water, and land water margins that support a natural ecosystem of plants and animals that area adapted to wet conditions". The Ramsar Convention, an international conservation agreement for wetlands to which New Zealand signed up to in 1971, has a wider definition of wetland. Since the mid-19th century, New Zealand has lost about 90% of its wetland areas due to draining for farming. Many remaining wetlands are also degraded due to pollution, grazing, drainage and presence of invasive plants. In the late 20th and early 21st century, efforts have been made towards wetland conservation. Ramsar sites The Department of Conservation currently administers seven Ramsar sites protected under the Ramsar Convention, covering a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moanatuatua Scientific Reserve
Moanatuatua scientific reserve is a 140 ha remnant of restiad (Restionaceae) Mire, peatland in the North Island of New Zealand. The bog was formerly ~ 7500 ha in size and was one of several large peatlands surrounding the city of Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton. Widespread drainage and conversion to agriculture has left only this small remnant of what was formerly the dominant ecosystem in the area. Moanatuatua is the best studied Mire, peatland in New Zealand, with research commencing in 1917 and at least 40 separate investigations during the next 100 years. The site is of international interest with research being carried out by scientists based in the UK and Canada as well as locally in New Zealand. The peat contains well-preserved pollen grains and plant remains dating back 14,000 years, making the site an important Paleoclimatology, palaeoclimatic record for New Zealand and the south pacific. Conservation value Moanatuatua is one of the only three known sites to contain t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Environment Of New Zealand
The environment of New Zealand is characterised by an endemic flora and fauna which has evolved in near isolation from the rest of the world. The main islands of New Zealand span two biomes, temperate and subtropical, complicated by large mountainous areas above the tree line.Walter, H. & Breckle, S-W. (2002). ''Walter's Vegetation of the Earth: The Ecological Systems of the Geo-Biosphere''. New York: Springer-Verlag, p. 86 There are also New Zealand Subantarctic Islands, numerous smaller islands which extend into the subantarctic. The prevailing weather systems bring significantly more rain to the west of the country. New Zealand's territorial waters cover a much larger area than its landmass and extend over the continental shelf and abyssal plateau in the South Pacific Ocean, Tasman Sea and Southern ocean. Historically having an isolated and endemic ecosystem far into modernity, the arrival of Polynesians about 1300 AD and then later European settlers began to have significa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gleichenia Dicarpa
''Gleichenia dicarpa'', commonly known as pouched coral fern or tangle fern, is a small fern of the family Gleicheniaceae found in eastern Australia, New Caledonia and New Zealand. It forms tangled thickets in wet places such as swamps and riverbanks. Taxonomy Collected by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander in November 1769 at Mercury Bay in New Zealand, ''G. dicarpa'' appeared in the 1810 work ''Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae'', authored by prolific botanist Robert Brown. Its genus name honours the German botanist W.F. von Gleichen, and its species name is Ancient Greek for "two fruit". Common names in New Zealand include tangle fern, Spider fern, and swamp umbrella fern. Australian common names include pouched coral fern, and wiry coral fern. The taxonomy of ''G. dicarpa'' is more complicated than previously thought; a genetic study of the DNA of Gleicheniaceae from New Zealand and Tasmania indicate that a smaller shorter-branched "upland" form from New Zealand is in fact ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Empodisma Robustum
''Empodisma'' is a genus of herbaceous rush-like plants in the family Restionaceae first described in 1974. It is native to Australia and New Zealand. ; species * '' Empodisma gracillimum'' (F.Muell.) L.A.S.Johnson & D.F.Cutler - Western Australia * ''Empodisma minus ''Empodisma minus'', commonly known as (lesser) wire rush or spreading rope-rush, is a perennial evergreen belonging to the southern-hemisphere family of monocotyledons called the Restionaceae. The Latin name ''Empodisma minus'' translates to “ ...'' (Hook.f.) L.A.S.Johnson & D.F.Cutler - Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, North Island of New Zealand * '' Empodisma robustum'' Wagstaff & B.R.Clarkson - North Island of New Zealand References Restionaceae Poales genera {{Poales-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Houdinia
''Houdinia'' is a monotypic genus of moths in the family Batrachedridae. Its sole species, ''Houdinia flexilissima'', is endemic to raised bogs in northern New Zealand. It is classified as "At Risk, Relict" by the Department of Conservation. The caterpillars are sometimes referred to as Fred the thread. Taxonomy This species was first described by Robert Hoare, John Dugdale and Corinne Watts in 2006 using a specimen collected at Torehape wetland, in Waikato. The holotype specimen is a male collected at the Torehape wetland held in the New Zealand Arthropod Collection. Two other taxa which were discovered earlier but which have remained undescribed are likely closely related to this moth: a species which tunnels in ''Machaerina teretifolia'' in New Zealand, and another in ''Lomandra longifolia'' in Australia. The species appears to be morphologically the most similar to the also recently described Japanese species ''Epimarptis hiranoi'', along with the two undescribed species ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sporadanthus Ferrugineus
''Sporadanthus ferrugineus'', the bamboo rush or giant wire rush, is a restiad plant endemic to the northern North Island of New Zealand. Taxonomy It was long considered that ''Sporadanthus'' plants in the North Island were the same species as '' Sporadanthus traversii'', which is native to Chatham Island, east of the New Zealand mainland. The North Island plants were described as the separate species ''S. ferrugineus'' in 1999, with ''S. traversii'' becoming regarded as endemic to Chatham Island. Distribution ''S. ferrugineus'' grows in acidic, ombrotrophic, restiad-dominated raised bogs. Draining of such bogs for farming in the northern North Island has greatly reduced their extent. ''S. ferrugineus'' is now mainly found at the peat domes of Kopuatai and Torehape on the Hauraki Plains and Moanatuatua Swamp in the Waikato basin. Biology ''S. ferrugineus'' is the only known food source for the moth '' Houdinia flexilissima''. Conservation Under the New Zealand Threat Cl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. History Random House was founded in 1927 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, two years after they acquired the Modern Library imprint from publisher Horace Liveright, which reprints classic works of literature. Cerf is quoted as saying, "We just said we were going to publish a few books on the side at random," which suggested the name Random House. In 1934 they published the first authorized edition of James Joyce's novel ''Ulysses'' in the Anglophone world. ''Ulysses'' transformed Random House into a formidable publisher over the next two decades. In 1936, it absorbed the firm of Smith and Haas—Robert Haas became the third partner until retiring and selling his share back to Cerf and Klopfer in 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country by area, covering . New Zealand is about east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps, owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland. The islands of New Zealand were the last large habitable land to be settled by humans. Between about 1280 and 1350, Polynesians began to settle in the islands and then developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight and record New Zealand. In 1840, representatives of the United Kingdom and Māori chiefs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Department Of Conservation (New Zealand)
The Department of Conservation (DOC; Māori: ''Te Papa Atawhai'') is the public service department of New Zealand charged with the conservation of New Zealand's natural and historical heritage. An advisory body, the New Zealand Conservation Authority (NZCA) is provided to advise DOC and its ministers. In addition there are 15 conservation boards for different areas around the country that provide for interaction between DOC and the public. Function Overview The department was formed on 1 April 1987, as one of several reforms of the public service, when the ''Conservation Act 1987'' was passed to integrate some functions of the Department of Lands and Survey, the Forest Service and the Wildlife Service. This act also set out the majority of the department's responsibilities and roles. As a consequence of Conservation Act all Crown land in New Zealand designated for conservation and protection became managed by the Department of Conservation. This is about 30% of New Z ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
