Colin Meurk

Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research · Biodiversity and Conservation Team

The theory-practice gap (TPG) is well known in the environmental realm, referring to disconnects between knowledge generated through scientific research and the needs, expectations, and practices of knowledge users for environmental decision-making and practice. While the presence of the TPG is well established, we have yet to fully implement mecha...

The natural capital components in cities (“blue-green infrastructure” BGI) are designed to address long-term sustainability and create multi-benefits for society, culture, business, and ecology. We investigated the added value of BGI through the research question “Can the implementation of blue-green infrastructure lead to an improvement of habitat...

A city’s planted trees, the great majority of which are in private gardens, play a fundamental role in shaping a city’s wild ecology, ecosystem functioning, and ecosystem services. However, studying tree diversity across a city’s many thousands of separate private gardens is logistically challenging. After the disastrous 2010–2011 earthquakes in Ch...

Resprouting is an important trait that allows plants to persist after fire and is considered a key functional trait in woody plants. While resprouting is well documented in fire-prone biomes, information is scarce in non-fire-prone ecosystems, such as New Zealand (NZ) forests. Our objective was to investigate patterns of post-fire resprouting in NZ...

Compared to non-spatial calculation of service values which is not intuitive, ecosystem services (ESs) mapping are more appealing to practitioners. However, applying these representations into ecological practice is still a challenge. Such research essentially embraces fundamental and applied characteristics, which have been ex- emplified by “Paste...

Canterbury Botanical Society Journal

This chapter argues for a new ecological-economic vision for flood management through examination of human–reservoir interactions in the Three Gorges Reservoir region, highlighting local ecological wisdom derived from observing, knowing and working with, rather than against natural forces. To make these lessons actionable for contemporary urban wat...

Following the Canterbury earthquake sequence of 2010-11, a large and contiguous tract of vacated ‘red zoned’ land lies alongside the lower Ōtākaro / Avon River and is known as the Avon-Ōtākaro Red Zone (AORZ). This is the second report in the Ecological Regeneration Options (ERO) project that addresses future land uses in the AORZ. The purpose of t...

Kanuka (Kunzea robusta) is a colonist pioneer species which presents a range of characteristics advantageous for direct seeding restoration projects, such as production of large quantities of seeds, rapid germination under favourable moist conditions, and retention of viability when dry. For this reason, kanuka has been included in many direct seed...

Following the Canterbury earthquake sequence of 2010-11, a large and contiguous tract of vacated ‘red zoned’ land lies alongside the lower Ōtākaro / Avon River and is known as the Avon-Ōtākaro Red Zone (AORZ). This is the second report in the Ecological Regeneration Options (ERO) project that addresses future land uses in the AORZ. The purpose of...

Riparian zones of regulated rivers are susceptible to species invasion due to a variety of anthropogenic disturbances. Adjacent land use and landscape patterns may be significant drivers in this process in conjunction with direct effects of flow regulation. Understanding different influences on invasion is necessary for regional landscape managemen...

Riparian zones of regulated rivers are susceptible to species invasion due to a variety of anthropogenic disturbances. Adjacent land use and landscape patterns may be significant drivers in this process in conjunction with direct effects of flow regulation. Understanding different influences on invasion is necessary for regional landscape managemen...

Manmade ponds are common landscape features in rural areas and also important habitats for maintaining biodiversity. However, they are vulnerable to anthropogenic activities, land use change, and habitat degradation; many ponds being filled or (re)created arbitrarily. Little attention has been paid to quantifying spatial structure of these manmade...

Modern cities use straightened and concrete watercourses with simple greening for riparian zones, which has been criticised for insensitivity to natural system integrity and cultural identity. This increases the challenge to urban ecologists, landscape designers and managers to conceive innovative and effective design solutions that do not jeopardi...

Vineyards worldwide occupy over 7 million hectares and are typically virtual monocultures, with high and costly inputs of water and agro-chemicals. Understanding and enhancing ecosystem services can reduce inputs and their costs and help satisfy market demands for evidence of more sustainable practices. In this New Zealand work, low-growing, endemi...

Raw data with analyses

Vineyards worldwide occupy over 7 million hectares and are typically virtual monocultures, with high and costly inputs of water and agro-chemicals. Understanding and enhancing ecosystem services can reduce inputs and their costs and help satisfy market demands for evidence of more sustainable practices. In this New Zealand work, low-growing, endemi...

Vineyards worldwide occupy over 7 million hectares and are typically virtual monocultures, with high and costly inputs of water and agro-chemicals. Understanding and enhancing ecosystem services can reduce inputs and their costs and help satisfy market demands for evidence of more sustainable practices. In this New Zealand work, low-growing, endemi...

The giant Three Gorges Dam and associated reservoir impose an unprecedented threat to regional biodiversity and ecosystem services through reducing and fragmenting habitats. We argue that an emerging ecological challenge goes beyond habitat shrinkage and direct loss of indigenous species. The most complex and vulnerable drawdown zone caused by rese...

New Zealand is a micro-continent that has been more isolated from mainstream (especially Northern Hemisphere) evolution than any other large, ice-free land mass. This has created a land of unusual and often unique ecology, notably lacking land mammals. Native Gondwanan elements, and others considered ancestral to major world lineages, imply some co...

Landscape connectivity is a critical concern for the study of interactive relationship between landscape structure and ecological processes. A combination of Least-cost Path (LcP) analysis and graph-theoretic technique can provide a more efficient approach to identifying and assessing potential links in heterogeneous landscapes. This method has bee...

With rapid urbanisation and industrialisation, natural area fragmentation and habitats loss is inevitable. Under these circumstances, landscape connectivity and ecological networks become the focus of applied landscape ecology. A well-connected ecological network is believed to facilitate energy and matter fluxes, species dispersal, genetic exchang...

One of the greatest challenges associated with the Three Gorges Dam and Reservoir is the massive extent of the drawdown zone, causing soil erosion, loss of habitats, and landscape aesthetic degradation. Through two rounds of field and interview surveys, we have re-engaged with traditional agro-ecological knowledge as a source of solutions to these...

Private domestic gardens have been the site of diverse inquiry in both the social and natural sciences. Intersected by these inquiries this paper focuses on how ‘weeds’ are (re)constituted through gardening practices in domestic gardens in Christchurch, New Zealand. The paper arises out of an interdisciplinary ecological and social scientific study...

Urban forests are increasingly valued for multiple benefits such as amenity, cultural values, native biodiversity, ecosystem services, and carbon sequestration. Urban biodiversity in particular, is the new focus although global homogenisation is undermining regional differentiation. In the northern hemisphere (e.g., Canada and USA) and in the south...

Private domestic gardens have been the site of diverse inquiry in both the social and natural sciences. Intersected by these inquiries this paper focuses on how 'weeds' are (re)constituted through gardening practices in domestic gardens in Christchurch, New Zealand. The paper arises out of an interdisciplinary ecological and social scientific study...

In order to provide evidence-based advices on the future restoration of lake shore zone and environment within and around the water fluctuation zone of the Three Gorges Reservoir, this preliminary research investigated floristic composition and plant community diversity along a shoreline elevation gradient in Hanfeng Lake Wetland Park, Kai County,...

Aim To examine the roles of physical and biotic environment, distance, direction and dispersal in determining the composition of plant communities at a regional scale. Location Grassland and shrubland at 266 sites in the mountains of southern South Island, New Zealand. Methods Species abundances of vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens were measu...

To test the theory that successful biocontrol of invasive hawkweeds (Pilosella and Hieracium spp.) would increase bare ground and accelerate erosion, small areas of hawkweed were suppressed with herbicide in a nine-year study. An increase in bare ground resulting from the treatments was maintained throughout. No new invasive species were recorded,...

Summary Project and Client  New Zealand Transport Agency contracted Landcare Research to work with local roading authorities to a) trial the establishment of particular native plant species on road batters with the objective of minimising maintenance, improving amenity and ecological links, and b) provide information on the impacts of native plant...

Urbanization has destroyed and fragmented previously large areas of habitat. Small remnants that still exist in numerous cities will be unable to sustain many viable wild plant populations if they do not expand into the surrounding urban matrix. Residential gardens form a significant component of urban green space in many cities and therefore could...

A prerequisite for more sustainable urban design is an understanding of the current composition of urban plant communities and what 'drives' their compositional variation. Various approaches have been used in the past to describe urban plant community patterns, including phytosociological approaches in Europe and more quantitative urban-rural gradi...

Urban ecological networks are defined differently in ecology, urban planning and landscape ecology, but they all have linearity and linkage in common. Early urban representations evolved from the constraints of deep ecological structure in the landscape to built elements that must work around natural linear obstacles—rivers, coastlines, dunes, clif...

Can New Zealand’s indigenous dryland ecosystems be rehabilitated by facilitating inherent successional tendencies to enhance development of indigenous-dominated and often woody communities in the long term? Here, we describe the geographic distribution of woody communities of New Zealand’s South Island drylands to generate hypotheses about successi...

Christchurch urban lawns are dominated by non-native grasses and forbs. However, we document considerable plant diversity; the total number of species encountered in our 327 sampled lawns was 127, although 80 species occurred in <2% of lawns. Seven distinct lawn communities were identified by Two-Way INdicator SPecies ANalysis using occurrence of 4...

Introduction: To date, nearly all vegetation studies in New Zealand have been carried out in pristine to semi-natural systems. Thus, urban ecology in New Zealand is in its infancy as compared with the centuries of observation, documentation and mapping of vegetation, biotopes and natural history in urban areas of Europe (Gilbert, 1989; Breuste et a...

Twelve additional records of indigenous vascular plants and 25 naturalised plant records are added to the flora of Stewart Island. The majority of the new naturalised plant records come from Halfmoon Bay. Observations on the distribution and abundance of Gunnera tinctoria on Stewart Island are given, as this species is considered to pose a signific...

New Zealand urban environments are currently dominated by exotic plant species. Restoring native vegetation and its associated native biodiversity in these landscapes is desirable for both cultural and ecological reasons. We report on the first four years of an ongoing vegetation restoration experiment in Waitakere City, Auckland, that addresses fo...

The Flock Hill Workshop was held on 18-19th November 2009 at Lincoln University. The theme was Urban Ecology and Ecological Design: Perspectives in Integration and Future Directions The main goals of the workshop were to identify ways in which ecology and design can be successfully integrated and to determine future research and teaching directions...

The Flock Hill Workshop was held on 18-19th November 2009 at Lincoln University. The theme was Urban Ecology and Ecological Design: Perspectives in Integration and Future Directions. The main goals of the workshop were to identify ways in which ecology and design can be successfully integrated and to determine future research and teaching direction...

A new wave of agricultural intensification in New Zealand is causing increasing pressure on natural resources. Moller et al. (2008) suggest that the agricultural intensification is inevitable, that negative environmental impacts have only been demonstrated for aquatic systems, and that a new paradigm based on integrating indigenous biodiversity and...

The vegetation of urban walls in New Zealand's cities has been little studied. We investigated the occurrence of wall vegetation in Christchurch and Dunedin cities, and determined whether vegetation patterns could be distinguished. This is a contribution to the ecological knowledge base that enables the development of management tools aimed at pres...

This paper outlines the roles that ecological concepts and the practice of landscape design have in achieving sustainable and healthy cities of the future. This approach is embodied in the Low Impact Urban Design and Development (LIUDD) movement. We describe studio exercises conducted for the students at Lincoln University in the Landscape Architec...

Low Impact Urban Design and Development (LIUDD) is a sustainable living concept. Urban sustainability and health are achieved through effective management of stormwater, waste, energy, transport and ecosystem services. The greening of cities by planting ecologically with local species is also a vital part of the overall well-being of ecosystems and...

Campbell Island is a small, uninhabited peat-covered island lying in the cool southern ocean 600 km south of the New Zealand mainland. Dracophyllum scrub is the main cover from sea level to 200 m, above which tussock grassland, macrophyllous forbs and tundra dominate. Seven peat profiles from sea level to the tundra zone provide an elevational tran...

In most regions of the world removal of environmental stress facilitates regeneration of native plants and habitats. However, in many of New Zealand's modified landscapes, exotic species are likely to respond first to any reduction in stress because these fast-growing species are prevalent in local vegetation and dominate seed banks. Given the tren...

The Greening Waipara project stems from initiatives by Lincoln University, local wine growers, the Hurunui District Council, and Landcare Research. Lincoln University is running a public-good research programme funded by FRST called Biodiversity, ecosystem services and sustainable agriculture; LINX 0303. This programme is calculating the value of n...

Mid to late 20th century expansion of Dracophyllum scrub into tussock grassland on subantarctic Campbell Island has been attributed to the collective effects of global warming, cessation of farming in 1931, and continued grazing by feral sheep. To determine the importance of these, we dated the timing of scrub expansion by aging 241 Dracophyllum pl...

Russian text, in Cyrillic script. Compared to many countries, New Zealand’s Low Impact Urban Design and Development programme is unique because in the last 150 years New Zealand’s landscape has been dramatically modified. Thousands of species of plants and animals have been introduced into what was a pristine environment. Exotic trees, shrubs and h...

Christchurch, the second largest city in New Zealand, has varied natural environments including flood plains, sand dunes, wetlands, river banks, tidal estuaries and part of a volcanic crater rim (Christchurch City Council, 2004). Many of these environments have been modified by urban development, and currently the plant community covering the large...

Aim The vegetation of subantarctic Campbell Island consists mainly of lowland Dracophyllum scrub and upland tussock grassland and tundra. Soon after the island was discovered in 1810, occupation by sealers and whalers led to localized burning and cutting of scrub. Further burning and cutting took place as a result of sheep farming between 1894 and...

Christchurch, the second largest city in New Zealand is a planned city on a coastal plain on the east coast of the South Island. The birth of the city and the subsequent century of development was characterised by colonial values and tree and garden planting with familiar European species along with those from Australia, North America, and eventual...

New Zealand local governments use aerial photography for land monitoring and management, primarily using visual interpretation. We evaluate high resolution satellite imagery for these applications, exploring automated classification to make mapping from these data a practical reality. Guidance is provided by questionnaire responses from authorities...

Changes in vegetation from 1990 to 2000 were examined at 10 high country localities, representing four grassland types: fescue tussock (Festuca novae-zelandiae), snow tussock (Chionochloa rigida), red tussock (C. rubra), and silver tussock (Poa cita). At each locality, three treatments were established: ambient sheep+rabbit grazing, rabbit grazing...

The competitive abilities of three montane indigenous New Zealand plant species (Acaena buchananii, Festuca novae-zelandiae, and Raoulia australis) when growing with the locally invasive, introduced Hieracium pilosella were compared in an outdoor pot experiment. Competitive ability was divided into the competitive effect, or the ability to deplete...

Practical steps using landscape ecological concepts to better integrate nature and culture within New Zealand’s agricultural landscape are proposed. In New Zealand, nature conservation is typically seen as distinct from agri-business, and the two goals are pursued in different places — with nature having steadily retreated from public view and expe...

A modern pollen-vegetation data set of 46 samples is presented from subantarctic Campbell Island, 600 km south of the New Zealand mainland. The sampled vegetation includes all major community types: maritime turf and grassland, sedge flushes, dwarf forest, scrub, cushion bog, tussock grassland, and high altitude graminoid turfs and tundra. Macrophy...

This paper reports on an investigation of Christchurch biotopes, based on sampling uniform areas where species were recorded by composition, abundance, and features of the physical environment. Seven biotopes were identified in Christchurch, these being lawns, wastelands, herbaceous (flower) borders, shrubberies and hedges, parklands and street tre...

Challenges to the traditional circumscription of Apiaceae and Araliaceae are emerging as a result of phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequences. Traditionally classified as Araliaceae, Stilbocarpa emerges with Schizeilema and Azorella, both members of the Apiaceae. In our analyses of nuclear ITS sequences, these three genera comprise a distinct Souther...

The plant species present on Otamahua/Quail Island 1976-1999 are grouped according to origin, specifically identifying indigenous and introduced taxa. The known vascular plant flora for this period consists of 357 species. Taxa believed to be descended from ancestors truly indigenous to the island include 7 tree species, 18 shrubs, 7 vines, 28 mono...

Campbell Island lies 600 km southeast of the New Zealand mainland. Scrub, grassland, rushes and large-leaved forb vegetation grow on the deep peats that cover nearly the entire island. Campbell Island was extensively glaciated at the height of the Last Glaciation and mean annual temperatures were about 5°C below present. Peat growth began c. 13 000...

Alpine mires are widespread on the flat-topped mountains of Central Otago, the driest and most continental region in New Zealand. Peat profiles, pollen analyses, and radiocarbon dates are presented for several mires from the Old Man Range as part of a study of the environmental history of this region. Precipitation in the early Holocene may have be...

A two-day workshop on 'Scientific issues in ecological restoration' was hosted by Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research, Ilam, Christchurch on 22-23 February 1995. The workshop comprised a field excursion, especially to interact with land managers and practioners, which visited restoration projects in Christchurch City and its environs, an evening fun...

Campbell Island, situated in the middle of the belt of southern ocean gales, experiences a mean windspeed above that at which sea spray forms. Ionic concentration and related parameters were measured in precipitation collected throughout a year along a transect of rain gauges extending inland from the windward, westerly coast and up to the highest...

Electronic Reprint V1.01 (June 2004), New Zealand Journal of Ecology, © New Zealand Ecological Society, Inc., http://www.nzes.org.nz

There are two principal forest-forming tree species on the Auckland Islands: Metrosideros umbellata (rata), which has occupied the islands for at least 9000 yr, and Olearia lyallii (Olearia), which probably established early in the 19th century. Rata dominates and regenerates in sheltered places on dense peats with relatively high Mg and Ca concent...