Campbell Island

Campbell Island Taxa | Campbell Island Outputs | Campbell Island Research Poster

New Zealand Fungal Herbarium (PDD) specimens from Campbell Island
New Zealand's subantarctic islands lie scattered across the Campbell Plateau, a submerged portion of the New Zealand continental landmass. Before the southwest Pacific Ocean began to form during continental drifting about 80 million years ago, the plateau was connected to Antarctica and formed part of the super-continent of Gondwana. The island groups themselves are primarily volcanic in origin. Campbell Island and the Auckland Islands were glaciated during the quaternary ice ages.

Campbell Island is the most southerly of the New Zealand subantarctic islands, at about 52^o 35' south and 169^o 10' east, with an area of about 11 331 hectares.

The New Zealand subantarctic islands occupy the cool-temperate zone, they lie between the antarctic and subtropical convergences, have a mean annual temperature above 5 ^oC, and support a vegetation that includes trees and woody shrubs. True subantarctic islands (e.g., Macquarie Island) lie in the vicinity of the Antarctic convergence, have a mean annual temperature of 1 – 5 ^oC, and no trees.

Campbell Island has around 128 native vascular plants, which include several endemic herbs and grasses. Domestic sheep and cattle were feral on the island from 1930 – 1990, heavily modifying the vegetation in some areas. Introduced plants have had a minimal impact on the native vegetation, and remain mostly confined to areas of past human settlement. The main vegetation components comprise grasslands associated with giant herbs, scrub or dwarf heath-like forests in areas with sufficient shelter (dominated by Dracophyllum longifolium and Myrsine divaricata), maritime cushion and turf communities, swamps, bogs and rushlands, and cushion fellfields.

[Sources of information: New Zealand's Subantarctic Islands, Reed Books, 1999. Muerk, C.D.; Foggo, M.N.; Wilson, J.B. 1994: The vegetation of subantarctic Campbell Island. New Zealand Journal of Ecology 18: 123 – 168, 1994.]

Campbell Island Taxa | Campbell Island Outputs | Campbell Island Research Poster

New Zealand Fungal Herbarium (PDD) specimens from Campbell Island

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