Indigenous biodiversity, restoration and the perfect New Zealand City. Bruce Clarkson, Cilla Wehi & Lars Brabyn

Transcription

1 Indigenous biodiversity, restoration and the perfect New Zealand City Bruce Clarkson, Cilla Wehi & Lars Brabyn

2 Important note to users This power point is as presented at the New Zealand Ecological Society S Conference on 28 August It is provided here, following numerous requests, for use and discussion on the condition that it is copyright and not to be quoted or used in any a publication or report as the research is currently being prepared for publication. It is also important to recognize that the data has been analyzed d using a range of concepts of a city and comparison between different components of data may not be valid. For example, for the urban rural gradient curves we used an algorithm to define the built up area of the city first- the matrix of buildings houses and streets with no large discontinuities. Then we defined 5km, 10 km and km buffers. The aim was to compare structurally/ ecologically equivalent parts of the city rather than just variable historical administrative units. This allowed us to determine the persistence or penetration of ecological features into the built up matrix. For other statistics presented the administrative boundary is used. This will all be fully explained in the forthcoming publication. If you have any comments or questions on the powerpoint Bruce Clarkson (b.clarkson@waikato.ac.nz).

3

4 Napier The Listener view: the results [so far] are middling to downright mediocre Our aims: measure progress in bringing nature back into the 20 largest cities consider perfect city from an ecologist s perspective New Plymouth

5 Method Postal questionnaire GIS analysis of LCDB2 and LENZ (limitations) Yardstick 2005 Watching brief of urban ecology in New Zealand

6 Method: built up area and 5km, 10km and 20km buffers LCDB2 background

7 Indigenous cover has been systematically removed New Plymouth Dunedin Palmerston North

8 Area of green space to indigenous cover- connections between parks and gardens and biodiversity Min % Urban parkland 3.5 Dunedin % Indigenous Cover < 1% Invercargill, Napier & Palmerston North Mean Max 11.4 New Plymouth 8.5 New Plymouth

9 Urban-rural rural gradients Hastings (7) Nelson (7)

10 Urban-rural rural gradients Wellington (5) New Plymouth (1)

11 New Zealand cities cover a wide range New Zealand cities cover a wide range of different land environments 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% Christchurch Dunedin Invercargill Hastings Napier Nelson Wanganui Palmerston Nth Porirua Lower Hutt Wellington New Plymouth Rotorua West Auckland Hamilton Whangarei Southern Auckland Tauranga Northern Auckland Central Auckland

12 Diversity of habitats and Diversity of habitats and environments in cities Habitats within cities include: Geothermal Fernland Tall tussock grassland Matagouri Subalpine shrubland Christchurch New Plymouth Rotorua Wanganui Dunedin Hamilton Lower Hutt Nelson Palmerston North South Auckland Whangarei Central Auckland Hastings Invercargill Napier Porirua Wellington West Auckalnd North Auckalsnd Tauranga

13 Where is restoration effort currently focused (in 2006)? No. restoration projects Spending $ Min 0 0 New Brighton, Christchurch sand dunes Mean ,500 Max ,000 Napier estuary

14 Special opportunities Potential for intensive human intervention Lack of grazing animals Propagation and growth of threatened species Paritutu Reserve New Plymouth * Interactive relationship of people and environment 10 mm

15 Where are cities on the restoration journey? Table based on information from 20 largest cities Progress since 2003 Big City Survey? Criteria Inventory Sufficient weed and pest control Policies to prevent further clearance Biodiversity plan or strategy Specific biodiversity staff / Biodiversity monitoring network 0

16 Iconic species as indicators of success? Are tui nesting in your city? 14/20 Are cabbage trees regenerating in your city? 14/20 Tui Photo: Max McRae

17 Restoration, reconstruction and retrofitting Total size of existing and potential urban indigenous resource Have you got enough? Aim: 10% of city built up area? Area (ha) Forest Scrub Freshw ater Estuarine Other Ecosystem type Min top up needed: Max top up needed: (%) 1.5% New Plymouth 9.5%+ Area 34 ha New Plymouth 1365 ha Christchurch

18 Different solutions for different cities Restore the gullies and link them to the river, the lakes and forest remnants (potential 810 ha of 9427 ha; 8.6%) Restore 10 ha; Reconstruct 190 ha

19 Urban-periurban interdependencies: native fish All sites fished Banded kokopu Spotlighting N Banded kokopu 0 2 km Slide and research: Brendan Hicks

20 Tui movements in the Waikato Slide and research: John Innes

21 Slide and research: Andrea Dekrout 15+ bats in exotic trees 2 bats commute into Hamilton nightly Hamilton 5++ bats in remnant Kahikatea 1 bat commutes into Hamilton nightly 20+ bats in remnant Kahikatea 2 bats commute into Hamilton nightly

22 So what is the perfect city? Ecological nodes and matrix Green veining Representative ecosystems Iconic species successfully breeding / regenerating Ecosystem management capability Relevant research

23 Nga mihi The cities that responded to our many questions Researchers who provided unpublished information Funding from FRST Contract UOWX0501