Products - Land Environments of New Zealand
J. Leathwick, G.
Wilson, D. Rutledge, P. Wardle, F. Morgan, K. Johnston, M. McLeod & R.
Kirkpatrick. 2003. David Bateman Ltd., Auckland. 183 pp.
$49.95 from Manaaki
Whenua Press
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here
LENZ gives a new insight into the rich diversity of New Zealand’s
ecosystems by merging traditional approaches to ecology with powerful
modern spatial analysis tools. Its classification of New Zealand’s
landscapes provides a powerful tool that will profoundly change the
way we manage biodiversity and land-related issues.
With increased human pressure on our landscapes and biodiversity, we are
faced as a nation with the challenge of finding new and more effective ways
to protect our natural heritage — this volume represents a major step
towards that goal. Building on the results of 20 years research, Landcare
Research scientists have used powerful spatial analysis tools in conjunction
with extensive databases describing our climate and soils to develop a profoundly
different approach to the classification of our landscapes. The results clearly
portray the rich diversity of our natural environments, providing new insight
into the major factors that make New Zealand different.
While the initial chapter provides an up to date perspective on current
approaches to land management, later chapters describe the climate
and landform factors, their ecological significance, and how they were
used to define the classification. An extensive chapter describes the
major environments of New Zealand, with extensive use of maps, graphics
and colour photos. The final chapter demonstrates the use of the classification
to address a range of land-related issues including management of biodiversity,
biosecurity, and optimisation of productive land uses.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Preface
Introduction: What is LENZ?
Chapter 1: Why LENZ?
Chapter 2: Environmental drivers of biological patterns
Temperature
Solar radiation
Water supply and demand
Slope
Drainage
Soil fertility
Soil age
Chemical limitations to plant growth
Environmental effects on animals
Summary
Chapter 3: Defining and mapping the LENZ classification
Geographic and environmental space
Defining groups in environmental space
Defining a hierarchical classification
Mapping the classification
Chapter 4: Land Environments of New Zealand Levels I and II
Level I Environments in relation to Regional Councils
Level I Environments in relation to land use
The Level I and II descriptions
Chapter 5: LENZ case studies
Case Study 1: Ranking sites for protection
Case Study 2: Loss and fragmentation of indigenous ecosystems
Case Study 3: Restoration of degraded ecosystems
Case Study 4: Priorities for international biosecurity screening
Case Study 5: Monitoring pest distributions across New Zealand
Case Study 6: Finding sites suitable for crops
A postscript
Glossary
Appendices
Appendix 1: Common names of plants, with scientific equivalents
Appendix 2: Attributes of the Level II environments
Endnotes
Index
