New Zealand is home to over 70 ‘naturally rare’ ecosystems - ecosystems that make up less than 0.05% of the total area of New Zealand. These small areas can hold an incredible amount of plant and animal biodiversity, much of which is under threat.
Waipata Reserve in the Waitaki Valley. Photo: RNZ / Claire Concannon
Follow Our Changing World on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRADIO, Google Podcasts, RadioPublic or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
In the Waitaki Valley area of North Otago limestone ecosystems are rare and in decline. When it breaks down, the limestone rock produces rich fertile soil good for farming, and the stone itself is quarried for building. So the land has been extensively modified, and the areas suitable for limestone endemic plants has shrunk.
One of the biggest problems for the limestone-soil specific plants is non-native grasses such as Chewings fescue. The grasses smother the plants, blocking out light, sucking up all the moisture and building big impenetrable root mats that stop new plant seedlings from establishing. The low growing natives just can’t compete, and so their numbers have been dwindling.
This week Claire Concannon visits a Department of Conservation limestone ecosystem reserve and speaks to the team of scientists, rangers and tangata whenua who are working together to care for the place, and the threatened plants that grow there.
Tom & Clement from DOC (at end left and right). (Back) Jamie, Patrick, Mauriri. (Front) Kauri and Les from Whiria te Waitaki. Photo: RNZ / Claire Concannon
