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The Geographical Setting of New Zealand and Its Place in Global Geography
Abstract
New Zealand has three main islands and many smaller ones at mid-temperate latitudes, steep topography and many rivers, mostly
flowing east or west, with hard rock gravels, and many lakes, all of them young and most of them either volcanic (North Island)
or glacial (South Island). Early biogeographers were Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace, with strong interest from local biogeographers
from the late nineteenth century, particularly palaeontologist Charles Fleming. The New Zealand freshwater fish fauna has
derivations from diadromous species that can disperse across oceans and around the coastline. The advent of plate tectonics
profoundly influenced biogeography through the last half of the twentieth century, but it is uncertain whether this has had
any implications for the derivation of the freshwater fish fauna, a topic that has been highly controversial.
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A new genus and three new species of the microchiropteran family Mystacinidae are described from Miocene freshwater limestones in northern Australia. The type species,
Icarops breviceps
new genus and species, is from the middle Miocene Bullock Creek deposit, Northern Territory;
I. aenae
new species and
I. paradox
new species are from the slightly older (early Miocene) Wayne's Wok and Neville's Garden Sites at Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland. Fossil mystacinids are rare in each deposit and represented so far only by lower teeth and dentary fragments. They are characterized by a suite of apomorphies shared only with Quaternary mystacinids endemic to New Zealand. The family Mystacinidae has no pre-Pleistocene record and its relationships to other groups of bats remain unclear. Possible sister-groups include South American noctilionoids and the cosmopolitan molossoids and/or vespertilionoids. The presence of plesiomorphic mystacinids in the Australian Tertiary suggests an Australian origin for the family.
The modern New Zealand angiosperm flora has many notable characteristics, such as a predominance of evergreen, perennial life forms, few nitrogen-fixing species, despecialised floral features and asymmetric genus—species relations. The origin of these features has been attributed to antiquity of the flora, isolation and/or environmental history. Using evidence from palynology and macrofossils, we investigate the characteristics of the mid–late Cenozoic angiosperm flora and the impact of environmental changes in land area and configuration, physiography and climate on the depletion and composition of the New Zealand flora. Climatic cooling, increasing isolation and tectonism have each acted as important environmental filters, contributing to regional extinctions and decreasing floral diversity, and inducing major turnover in the floristic composition of New Zealand. During the Miocene and Pliocene at least 15 families and a minimum of 36 genera were lost from the New Zealand flora. These included a range of life forms and physiognomically important taxa such as Acacia, Bombax, Casuarina, Eucalyptus, Ilex, many Proteaceae and several palms. The extinction and decline in richness of subtropical families was caused by the onset of cooling conditions in the Late Miocene—Pliocene, and exacerbated by the absence of significant land areas to act as refugia at lower latitudes. Many of these genera/families persist today on islands to the north (e.g. New Caledonia), reflecting mid-Cenozoic land conduits, and in Australia. The close floristic links with New Caledonia were probably maintained by intermittent island stepping-stones which facilitated interchange of subtropical taxa until the Late Miocene. The Pleistocene extinction of some genera, tolerant of warm-temperate environments (e.g. Acacia, Eucalyptus) may be a reflection of the fact that persistent mesic conditions favoured widespread dominance of dense rainforest during interglacials. The loss of these groups, containing diverse life forms and floral structures, suggests that many of the present characteristics of the New Zealand flora reflect strong selective pressures, mainly driven by climate change, in the Late Miocene, Pliocene and Pleistocene, rather than events of greater geological antiquity.
Estuaries are vulnerable, unstable areas sensitive to the impact of man, because they are at the interface of two contrasting environments in which the results of environmental changes induced by man are focused. This study presents data on the extent, character, status and on the number of surveys of New Zealand estuaries. The widest possible interpretation of the term estuary has been used so as to produce the most comprehensive list. Detailed study of topographic maps and information from questionnaires indicate that there are 301 estuaries widely distributed around the coast with an average of 1 per 32 km of coastline. Some data on the status of 54% of these is available. These estuaries range in size from a few ha to over 15000 ha but over ninety percent are less than 1700 ha, and 68% are less than 500 ha in area. Most estuaries are associated with human population concentrations of less than 500 persons. Overall there is approximately 0.03 ha of estuarine area per person. Bar-built and lagoonal estuaries predominate in both the North and South Islands. Questionnaire results suggest that the water of most estuaries is well-mixed and clean or slightly polluted. Significantly more North Island estuaries are seriously polluted. The status of more than two-thirds of the estuaries has remained unchanged, over the last 10 years. The balance among those which have changed is towards an overall deterioration and this has been more pronounced in the South Island. Research and surveys of estuaries are not very well developed and only l9% have been the subject of one or more reports. Very few have received satisfactory, detailed, simultaneous study of both their physical and biological characteristics over any length of time. In view of the many uses to which they are put, the frequent proximity of urban population concentrations, and the channelling of the eftects of many different, widely dispersed human activities through them, estuaries should be the subject of a great deal more research. The use of systems modelling techniques as an aid to research and management is advocated
The New Zealand mountains provide a unique system in which to study the evolution of alpine plants. The relationship between the recent uplift of mountain habitats (5-2 million year ago (mya)) and floristic diversity has polarized hypotheses on the evolution of the alpine flora; suggestions have ranged from an ancient history in New Zealand to recent arrival by long distance dispersal from the Northern Hemisphere. Molecular phylogenies are now available for numerous New Zealand alpine plant groups and these provide insights into the evolution of this unique flora. Taken together with the fossil record, these studies suggest that many alpine lineages first arrived in New Zealand during the late Tertiary and subsequent radiations accompanied environmental upheaval in the Pliocene and Pleistocene. Ongoing studies are investigating the processes that contribute to morphological and ecological diversity in the New Zealand alpine flora. (c) 2005 Gesellsehaft fur Biologische Systematik. Published by Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved
The Waipounamu Erosion Surface is a time-transgressive, nearly planar, wave-cut surface. It is not a peneplain. Formation of the Waipounamu Erosion Surface began in Late Cretaceous time following break-up of Gondwanaland, and continued until earliest Miocene time, during a 60 million year period of widespread tectonic quiescence, thermal subsidence and marine transgression. Sedimentary facies and geomorphological evidence suggest that the erosion surface may have eventually covered the New Zealand subcontinent (Zealandia). We can find no geological evidence to indicate that land areas were continuously present throughout the middle Cenozoic. Important implications of this conclusion are: (1) the New Zealand subcontinent was largely, or entirely, submerged and (2) New Zealand's present terrestrial fauna and flora evolved largely from fortuitous arrivals during the past 22 million years. Thus the modern terrestrial biota may not be descended from archaic ancestors residing on Zealandia when it broke away from Gondwanaland in the Cretaceous, since the terrestrial biota would have been extinguished if this landmass was submerged in Oligocene–Early Miocene time. We conclude that there is insufficient geological basis for assuming that land was continuously present in the New Zealand region through Oligocene to Early Miocene time, and we therefore contemplate the alternative possibility, complete submergence of Zealandia.
Chapter I: St. Jago—Cape de Verd Islands
After having been twice driven back by heavy south-western gales, Her Majesty’s ship Beagle, a ten-gun brig, under the command of Captain Fitz Roy, R.N., sailed from Devonport on the 27th of December, 1831. The object of...
Introduction
When on board H.M.S. ‘Beagle,’ as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the inhabitants of South America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that continent. These facts seemed to me...
The first known dinosaur bone from New Zealand was identified from the Late Cretaceous marine sandstones at the Mangahouanga Stream site in 1980 (Molnar, 1981). Since then isolated bones indicate that a variety of herbivores and carnivores were present after the separation from Gondwana 80-85 million years ago until their extinction. Though geographically polar in origin, survival for a long period on an island landmass suggests a temperate climate prevailed as New Zealand drifted north.
The narrow-gutted but lofty archipelago of New Zealand, consisting of two large and many smaller islands, rises from a system of relatively shallow submarine rises and plateaux between the South West Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea. The oceanic ridges, the basins and trenches that separate and flank them, and the chains of islands that surmount them are part of a complex system that extends north to Melanesia, thence westward to the Indonesian archipelago and northward to Japan and beyond as the geographic manifestation of the Circum-Pacific Mobile Belt, a zone in which geological processes and consequent geographic changes appear to have been exceptionally rapid throughout the span of geological time. The submarine rises (Fig. 1) represent vast areas for which geological knowledge is as yet extremely poor, but which cannot be ignored in interpreting the history of the region and have, indeed, been taken into account in most attempts to determine its geological history. Recent advances in marine geophysics have led to the widely supported theories of sea-floor spreading and plate-tectonics, and to a general acceptance of the concept of continental drift. Ideas of geological history have thus been polarised in terms of a unifying model, but in applying this model to the history of New Zealand there remain many degrees of freedom and no unique solution.
Cropp River, in the western Southern Alps, is a mountain torrent draining an area subject to frequent heavy rains. A high ratio of runoff to rainfall, and prompt runoff response to rain, produce steep flood waves, with peak runoffs up to 155 mm/h. Half of the rainfall leaves the 12 km2 upper basin during a storm, owing to prompt generation and translation of streamflow through a dense channel network.-from Authors
Study of the osteology of the nominal families Retropinnidae, Galaxiidae, and Aplochitonidae shows that the Retropinnidae and Galaxiidae are natural phyletic units, and good families. The family Aplochitonidae is shown to be an assemblage of genera, of which Prototroctes is closely related to Retropinna, while Aplochiton and Lovettia are much more similar to Galaxias. The family Aplochitonidae is therefore divided into Prototroctidae (Prototroctes) and Aplochitonidae (Aplochiton and Lovettia). These fishes form a quite compact southern temperate radiation which is related to and comparable with the northern temperate diadromous salmoniform fishes. Relationship appears to be closest with the Osmeroidei. Although it has been suggested that the Oriental family Salangidae, is related to the southern galaxioids, this study does not support such a view.
Brown trout Salmo trutta were introduced to New Zealand in 1867. Successful establishment was broadly predictable in terms both of the characteristics of brown trout and of the receiving community. There is evidence of impacts of brown trout on the abundance of some native fish and invertebrates, and brown trout have been responsible for the local extinction and fragmentation of certain species. An intensive study of the Taieri River has revealed that several native galaxiid fishes are now restricted to headwaters above large waterfalls that prevent the upstream migration of brown trout. Brown trout may profoundly affect the functioning of stream communities, reducing the abundance of grazing invertebrates and altering their grazing behaviour so that algal biomass increases. A trophic cascade was predictable on the basis of the attributes of the invader and of the stream community. Brown trout seem to have been responsible for the evolution among invertebrates of novel anti-predator behaviours with far-reaching community consequences. The ecological and evolutionary consequences of the introduction of brown trout to New Zealand are probably reversible.
It is widely recognised that the acquisition of high-resolution palaeoclimate records from southern mid-latitude sites is essential for establishing a coherent picture of inter-hemispheric climate change and for better understanding of the role of Antarctic climate dynamics in the global climate system. New Zealand is considered to be a sensitive monitor of climate change because it is one of a few sizeable landmasses in the Southern Hemisphere westerly circulation zone, a critical transition zone between subtropical and Antarctic influences. New Zealand has mountainous axial ranges that amplify the climate signals and, consequently, the environmental gradients are highly sensitive to subtle changes in atmospheric and oceanic conditions. Since 1995, INTIMATE has, through a series of international workshops, sought ways to improve procedures for establishing the precise ages of climate events, and to correlate them with high precision, for the last 30 000 calendar years. The NZ-INTIMATE project commenced in late 2003, and has involved virtually the entire New Zealand palaeoclimate community. Its aim is to develop an event stratigraphy for the New Zealand region over the past 30 000 years, and to reconcile these events against the established climatostratigraphy of the last glacial cycle which has largely been developed from Northern Hemisphere records (e.g. Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), Termination I, Younger Dryas). An initial outcome of NZ-INTIMATE has been the identification of a series of well-dated, high-resolution onshore and offshore proxy records from a variety of latitudes and elevations on a common calendar timescale from 30 000 cal. yr BP to the present day. High-resolution records for the last glacial coldest period (LGCP) (including the LGM sensu stricto) and last glacial-interglacial transition (LGIT) from Auckland maars, Kaipo and Otamangakau wetlands on eastern and central North Island, marine core MD97-2121 east of southern North Island, speleothems on northwest South Island, Okarito wetland on southwestern South Island, are presented. Discontinuous (fragmentary) records comprising compilations of glacial sequences, fluvial sequences, loess accumulation, and aeolian quartz accumulation in an andesitic terrain are described. Comparisons with ice-core records from Antarctica (EPICA Dome C) and Greenland (GISP2) are discussed. A major advantage immediately evident from these records apart from the speleothem record, is that they are linked precisely by one or more tephra layers. Based on these New Zealand terrestrial and marine records, a reasonably coherent, regionally applicable, sequence of climatically linked stratigraphic events over the past 30 000 cal. yr is emerging. Three major climate events are recognised: (1) LGCP beginning at ca. 28 000 cal. yr BP, ending at Termination I, ca. 18 000 cal. yr BP, and including a warmer and more variable phase between ca. 27 000 and 21 000 cal. yr BP, (2) LGIT between ca. 18 000 and 11 600 cal. yr BP, including a Lateglacial warm period from ca. 14 800 to 13 500 cal. yr BP and a Lateglacial climate reversal between ca. 13 500 and 11 600 cal. yr BP, and (3) Holocene interglacial conditions, with two phases of greatest warmth between ca. 11 600 and 10 800 cal. yr BP and from ca. 6 800 to 6 500 cal. yr BP. Some key boundaries coincide with tephras.
The galaxiid fishes exhibit a gondwanan distribution. We use mitochondrial DNA sequences to test conflicting vicariant and
dispersal biogeographic hypotheses regarding the Southern Hemisphere range of this freshwater group. Although phylogenetic
resolution of cytochrome b and 16S rRNA sequences is largely limited to more recent divergences, our data indicate that the radiation can be interpreted
as several relatively recent dispersal events superimposed on an ancient gondwanan radiation. Genetic relationships contradict
the findings of recent morphological analyses of galaxioid fishes. In particular, we examine several hypotheses regarding
phylogenetic placement of the enigmatic Lepidogalaxias. Although most workers consider Lepidogalaxias to be an unusual scaled member of the Southern Hemisphere galaxioids, it has also been suggested that this species is related
to the Northern Hemisphere esocoids. Our data strongly suggest that this species is not a galaxiid, and the alternative hypothesized
esocoid relationship cannot be rejected. The species-rich genus Galaxias is shown to be polyphyletic and the generic taxonomy of the Galaxiinae is reassessed in the light of phylogenetic relationships.
Juvenile saltwater-tolerance is phylogenetically distributed throughout the Galaxiinae, and the loss of this migratory phase
may be a major cause of speciation.
New fossils of dinosaurs and pterosaurs have been found in the conglomeratic facies of the Maungataniwha Member of the Tahora Formation (Campanian) of New Zealand. These derive from a large theropod, a sauropod, an ankylosaur and a pterosaur. Together with previously described material they indicate at least five, maybe seven, taxa from the Late Cretaceous terrestrial fauna of New Zealand. At that time New Zealand was an island near Antarctica, so this represents an insular, polar fauna.We assume a vicariance model for the origin of this fauna, which probably samples that present in Antarctica at the time New Zealand rifted away from it. The fauna differs from other well known Cretaceous Gondwana faunas in including an ankylosaur, but is similar to that from the Late Early Cretaceous of Queensland, Australia. The inclusion of both an ankylosaur and sauropod lend a relict, Early Cretaceous aspect to the fauna. There seems to be no particular similarity to known polar faunas from the Early Cretaceous of Victoria, Australia, or the Late Cretaceous of Alaska and Antarctica.Dinosaurs, both large and small, were capable of surviving in the cool to cold-temperate, seasonal climate of New Zealand at this time.
New Zealand possesses a small and unsaturated but peculiar indigenous freshwater fish fauna. In addition, a considerable variety of introduced species is now in competition with the native species and evidence suggests that this is causing depletion of the native fauna. It is considered that low saturation and high isolation of the New Zealand fauna has produced species with low competitive ability. The largely predatory introduced game fishes are of continental origin and their superior competitive ability is leading to competitive displacement of the native species.
Since brown trout Salmo trutta and rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss were introduced into New Zealand in the late 1800s, there has been a decline in the abundance of native fish that is often attributed to predation by them. The evidence is largely circumstantial, however, and habitat deterioration may also have played a role. Nor is predation the only means by which introduced trout might be having a negative impact on native fish. Studies of trout population stream ecology show that trout may consume the entire annual benthic insect production of streams, leading to a trophic cascade that is evident in the proliferation of periphyton in the relative absence of invertebrate grazing. Changes in the behavior of both benthic invertebrates and native fish are also believed to have resulted from trout predation. The observed level of benthos predation suggests that an additional impact of trout on native fish may function through a feedback loop: native fish may be less able to obtain food owing to changes in their own behavior, insect behavior, and insect abundance, all of which are induced by trout predation.
An incomplete indeterminate crocodilian angular from the Miocene Bannockburn Formation, Central Otago, South Island, New Zealand is described. The fossil (probably a new taxon) represents the first undoubted occurrence of a crocodilian in New Zealand. Local palaeoclimatic indicators suggest the crocodilian lived in a temperate climate.
Two Miocene fossil scales, 20–15 million years old, are reported from Ban‐nockburn, near Cromwell in Central Otago. Their explicit identity cannot be determined, but they appear to be from a perciform, perhaps a percichthyid, family of basal perciform fishes widely present in southern cool‐temperate lands. Whatever their identity, the scales came from a fish species not formerly reported from New Zealand fresh waters and they therefore indicate former, unrecognised diversity in the fauna.
Aim To describe New Zealand’s historical terrestrial biogeography and place this history in a wider Southern Hemisphere context.
Location New Zealand.
Methods The analysis is based primarily on literature on the distributions and relationships of New Zealand’s terrestrial flora and fauna.
Results New Zealand is shown to have a biota that has broad relationships, primarily around the cool Southern Hemisphere, as well as with New Caledonia to the north. There are hints of ancient Gondwanan taxa, although the long‐argued predominance of taxa derived by vicariant processes, driven by plate tectonics and the fragmentation of Gondwana, is no longer accepted as a principal explanation of the biota’s origins and relationships.
Main conclusions Most of the terrestrial New Zealand flora and fauna has clearly arrived in New Zealand much more recently than the postulated separation of New Zealand from Gondwana, dated at c. 80 Ma. There is a view that New Zealand may have disappeared completely beneath the sea in the early Cenozoic, and acceptance of this would mean derivation of the entire biota by transoceanic dispersal. However, there are elements in the biota that seem to have broad distributions that date back to Gondwanan times, and also some that are thought unlikely to have been able to disperse to New Zealand across ocean gaps, especially freshwater organisms. Very strong connections to the biota of Australia, rather than to South America, are inconsistent with the timing of New Zealand’s ancient and early separation from Gondwana and seem likely to have resulted from dispersal.
Aim Biogeographers have long been intrigued by New Zealand’s biota due to its unique combination of typical ‘continental’ and ‘island’ characteristics. The New Zealand plateau rifted from the former supercontinent Gondwana c. 80 Ma, and has been isolated from other land masses ever since. Therefore, the flora and fauna of New Zealand include lineages that are Gondwanan in origin, but also include a very large number of endemics. In this study, we analyse the evolutionary relationships of three genera of mite harvestmen (Arachnida, Opiliones, Cyphophthalmi) endemic to New Zealand, both to each other and to their temperate Gondwanan relatives found in Australia, Chile, Sri Lanka and South Africa.
Location New Zealand (North Island, South Island and Stewart Island).
Methods A total of 94 specimens of the family Pettalidae in the suborder Cyphophthalmi were studied, representing 31 species and subspecies belonging to three endemic genera from New Zealand ( Aoraki , Neopurcellia and Rakaia ) plus six other members of the family from Chile, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Australia. The phylogeny of these taxa was constructed using morphological and molecular data from five nuclear and mitochondrial genes (18S rRNA, 28S rRNA, 16S rRNA, cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and histone H3, totalling c. 5 kb), which were analysed using dynamic as well as static homology under a variety of optimality criteria.
Results The results showed that each of the three New Zealand cyphophthalmid genera is monophyletic, and occupies a distinct geographical region within the archipelago, grossly corresponding to palaeogeographical regions. All three genera of New Zealand mite harvestmen fall within the family Pettalidae with a classic temperate Gondwanan distribution, but they do not render any other genera paraphyletic.
Main conclusions Our study shows that New Zealand’s three genera of mite harvestmen are unequivocally related to other members of the temperate Gondwanan family Pettalidae. Monophyly of each genus contradicts the idea of recent dispersal to New Zealand. Within New Zealand, striking biogeographical patterns are apparent in this group of short‐range endemics, particularly in the South Island. These patterns are interpreted in the light of New Zealand’s turbulent geological history and present‐day patterns of forest cover.
Islands of the Pacific Ocean have long fascinated evolutionists. Oceanic islands, generally the products of volcanic activity, provide natural experiments as biological populations are well delimited and the age of islands can be determined using radiometric dating. ‘Continental islands’, including New Caledonia and New Zealand, provide equally valuable opportunities for evolutionary study. For students of New Zealand biogeography, the peculiar composition of the biota coupled with a limited interpretation of geology has resulted in the widespread acceptance that the flora and fauna is primarily ancient and of vicariant Gondwanan origin. There is increasing evidence from molecular data that much of this biodiversity is the product of evolution following relatively recent colonization. Such data have prompted biologists to consider geological information on New Zealand in more detail. At the heart of the issue is the question of whether modern New Zealand has a terrestrial link through time with the continent Zealandia that split from Gondwanaland some 80 Ma. Zealandia, which includes New Caledonia, Lord Howe Island and several of the subantarctic islands, is now largely submerged, and New Zealand's present terrestrial existence is the product of tectonic activity initiated around 26 Ma. We argue that for the purposes of biogeographical interpretation, New Zealand can be treated as an oceanic island.
Since separating from its super-continental origin 80million years ago, New Zealand has effectively been isolated from the
impacts of terrestrial mammals. The arrival of Polynesians in 13th C heralded the end of this era, with the introduction of
kiore, (Rattus exulans, or Pacific rat), which had far-reaching effects on plant regeneration, survival of small ground vertebrates, larger invertebrates,
and seabird breeding colonies. This paper reviews the evidence available from raptor nest sites and Quaternary beetle fossils
to summarise extinctions thought to be caused by kiore in New Zealand. It also utilises invertebrate comparisons between islands
with and without rats, or where rats have been eradicated, in order to document the impacts of rats (R. exulans, R. norvegicus) on invertebrate abundance, body mass, and the behavioural responses of some large New Zealand insects to the presence of
rats. The role of a ‘mammal-free’ evolutionary history is discussed.
Plants and animals have been flying, drifting, swimming and floating to the New Zealand archipelago over the millions of years in which it has been in existence. The continuing interaction of invader and resident has had a powerful influence on the formation of the biota. The current fauna and flora therefore represent the cumulative outcome of many cycles of invasion, speciation and extinction extending back 80 Ma to Gondwana. Invasion is not simply about dispersal and establishment. Many factors come into play – the biotic legacy from the remote Gondwanic past, the constantly altering geology and climate of the archipelago, and the makeup of the flora and fauna of New Zealand’s closest neighbours – all have had a strong influence on the outcome. Successful invaders ultimately become an integral part of the biota, changed by their environment and, in turn, changing it. The focus in this chapter is the history and consequences of these prehuman biotic invasions. I first survey the post-Gondwanic history of New Zealand, and review the evidence for ancient or dispersal origins of the biota. I then show how the makeup of the biota has been strongly influenced by the ever-changing climate and physical geography of the archipelago, as well as the long-term consequences of the absence of functional groups common elsewhere in the world, but rarely found on oceanic islands. 2.2 Dispersal and Vicariance: Late Cretaceous to the Pleistocene
The galaxioid fishes are the dominant, most speciose group of freshwater fishes (with >50 species) in the lands of the cool southern hemisphere, with representatives in western and eastern Australia, Tasmania, New Caledonia, Lord Howe Island, New Zealand, the Chatham, Auckland and Campbell Islands, Patagonian South America (Chile, Argentina), the Falkland Islands and South Africa. The group is most diverse in Australia and New Zealand. Lepidogalaxiidae is found only in Australia, Retropinnidae in Australia and New Zealand, and Galaxiidae across the entire range of the group. Many species are in serious conservation crisis for a diversity of reasons, including habitat deterioration and possibly fisheries exploitation, but there is enduring and pervasive information that shows that the group has been seriously impacted by the acclimatisation of salmonid fishes originating in the cool-temperate northern hemisphere, particularly brown and rainbow trout. With few exceptions, where these trout have been introduced there has been major decline in the galaxioids, especially Galaxiidae, as a result of a complexly interacting series of adverse impacts from these introduced fishes. In some places, centrarchids and cichlids may also have adverse impacts. In addition, there appear to have been adverse impacts from the translocation of galaxioids into communities where they do not naturally occur. In many instances it appears that displacement of the galaxioids has led to a situation where galaxioids and salmonids no longer co-occur, owing either to displacement or predation, leading to fish communities in which there is no explicit evidence for displacement. These effects are resulting in the galaxioid fishes being amongst the most seriously threatened fishes known.
• In considering the Origin of Species, it is quite conceivable that a naturalist, reflecting on the mutual affinities of organic beings, on their embryological relations, their geographical distribution, geological succession, and other such facts, might come to the conclusion that each species had not been independently created, but had descended, like varieties, from other species. Nevertheless, such a conclusion, even if well founded, would be unsatisfactory, until it could be shown how the innumerable species inhabiting this world have been modified, so as to acquire that perfection of structure and coadaptation which most justly excites our admiration. Naturalists continually refer to external conditions, such as climate, food, &c, as the only possible cause of variation. In one very limited sense, as we shall hereafter see, this may be true; but it is preposterous to attribute to mere external conditions, the structure, for instance, of the woodpecker, with its feet, tail, beak, and tongue, so admirably adapted to catch insects under the bark of trees. In the case of the misseltoe, which draws its nourishment from certain trees, which has seeds that must be transported by certain birds, and which has flowers with separate sexes absolutely requiring the agency of certain insects to bring pollen from one flower to the other, it is equally preposterous to account for the structure of this parasite, with its relations to several distinct organic beings, by the effects of external conditions, or of habit, or of the volition of the plant itself. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
• In considering the Origin of Species, it is quite conceivable that a naturalist, reflecting on the mutual affinities of organic beings, on their embryological relations, their geographical distribution, geological succession, and other such facts, might come to the conclusion that each species had not been independently created, but had descended, like varieties, from other species. Nevertheless, such a conclusion, even if well founded, would be unsatisfactory, until it could be shown how the innumerable species inhabiting this world have been modified, so as to acquire that perfection of structure and coadaptation which most justly excites our admiration. Naturalists continually refer to external conditions, such as climate, food, &c, as the only possible cause of variation. In one very limited sense, as we shall hereafter see, this may be true; but it is preposterous to attribute to mere external conditions, the structure, for instance, of the woodpecker, with its feet, tail, beak, and tongue, so admirably adapted to catch insects under the bark of trees. In the case of the misseltoe, which draws its nourishment from certain trees, which has seeds that must be transported by certain birds, and which has flowers with separate sexes absolutely requiring the agency of certain insects to bring pollen from one flower to the other, it is equally preposterous to account for the structure of this parasite, with its relations to several distinct organic beings, by the effects of external conditions, or of habit, or of the volition of the plant itself. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
It is widely recognised that the acquisition of high-resolution palaeoclimate records from southern mid-latitude sites is essential for establishing a coherent picture of inter-hemispheric climate change and for better understanding of the role of Antarctic climate dynamics in the global climate system. New Zealand is considered to be a sensitive monitor of climate change because it is one of a few sizeable landmasses in the Southern Hemisphere westerly circulation zone, a critical transition zone between subtropical and Antarctic influences. New Zealand has mountainous axial ranges that amplify the climate signals and, consequently, the environmental gradients are highly sensitive to subtle changes in atmospheric and oceanic conditions. Since 1995, INTIMATE has, through a series of international workshops, sought ways to improve procedures for establishing the precise ages of climate events, and to correlate them with high precision, for the last 30 000 calendar years. The NZ-INTIMATE project commenced in late 2003, and has involved virtually the entire New Zealand palaeoclimate community. Its aim is to develop an event stratigraphy for the New Zealand region over the past 30 000 years, and to reconcile these events against the established climatostratigraphy of the last glacial cycle which has largely been developed from Northern Hemisphere records (e.g. Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), Termination I, Younger Dryas). An initial outcome of NZ-INTIMATE has been the identification of a series of well-dated, high-resolution onshore and offshore proxy records from a variety of latitudes and elevations on a common calendar timescale from 30 000 cal. yr BP to the present day. High-resolution records for the last glacial coldest period (LGCP) (including the LGM sensu stricto) and last glacial-interglacial transition (LGIT) from Auckland maars, Kaipo and Otamangakau wetlands on eastern and central North Island, marine core MD97-2121 east of southern North Island, speleothems on northwest South Island, Okarito wetland on southwestern South Island, are presented. Discontinuous (fragmentary) records comprising compilations of glacial sequences, fluvial sequences, loess accumulation, and aeolian quartz accumulation in an andesitic terrain are described. Comparisons with ice-core records from Antarctica (EPICA Dome C) and Greenland (GISP2) are discussed. A major advantage immediately evident from these records apart from the speleothem record, is that they are linked precisely by one or more tephra layers. Based on these New Zealand terrestrial and marine records, a reasonably coherent, regionally applicable, sequence of climatically linked stratigraphic events over the past 30 000 cal. yr is emerging. Three major climate events are recognised: (1) LGCP beginning at ca. 28 000 cal. yr BP, ending at Termination I, ca. 18 000 cal. yr BP, and including a warmer and more variable phase between ca. 27 000 and 21 000 cal. yr BP, (2) LGIT between ca. 18 000 and 11 600 cal. yr BP, including a Lateglacial warm period from ca. 14 800 to 13 500 cal. yr BP and a Lateglacial climate reversal between ca. 13 500 and 11 600 cal. yr BP, and (3) Holocene interglacial conditions, with two phases of greatest warmth between ca. 11 600 and 10 800 cal. yr BP and from ca. 6 800 to 6 500 cal. yr BP. Some key boundaries coincide with tephras.
New Zealand has long been a conundrum to biogeographers, possessing as it does geophysical and biotic features characteristic of both an island and a continent. This schism is reflected in provocative debate among dispersalist, vicariance biogeographic and panbiogeographic schools. A strong history in biogeography has spawned many hypotheses, which have begun to be addressed by a flood of molecular analyses. The time is now ripe to synthesize these findings on a background of geological and ecological knowledge. It has become increasingly apparent that most of the biota of New Zealand has links with other southern lands (particularly Australia) that are much more recent than the breakup of Gondwana. A compilation of molecular phylogenetic analyses of ca 100 plant and animal groups reveals that only 10% of these are even plausibly of archaic origin dating to the vicariant splitting of Zealandia from Gondwana. Effects of lineage extinction and lack of good calibrations in many cases strongly suggest that the actual proportion is even lower, in keeping with extensive Oligocene inundation of Zealandia. A wide compilation of papers covering phylogeographic structuring of terrestrial, freshwater and marine species shows some patterns emerging. These include: east-west splits across the Southern Alps, east-west splits across North Island, north-south splits across South Island, star phylogenies of southern mountain isolates, spread from northern, central and southern areas of high endemism, and recent recolonization (postvolcanic and anthropogenic). Excepting the last of these, most of these patterns seem to date to late Pliocene, coinciding with the rapid uplift of the Southern Alps. The diversity of New Zealand geological processes (sinking, uplift, tilting, sea level change, erosion, volcanism, glaciation) has produced numerous patterns, making generalizations difficult. Many species maintain pre-Pleistocene lineages, with phylogeographic structuring more similar to the Mediterranean region than northern Europe. This structure reflects the fact that glaciation was far from ubiquitous, despite the topography. Intriguingly, then, origins of the flora and fauna are island-like, whereas phylogeographic structure often reflects continental geological processes.
The diverse scincid lizard fauna of the largely submerged subcontinent of Zealandia (which incorporates New Zealand, New Caledonia, Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island, and the Chatham Islands) forms a monophyletic lineage within the Eugongylus group of skinks. We use 4062 bp of mitochondrial (ND2, ND4, Cytochrome b, 12SrRNA, 16SrRNA) and nuclear (Rag-1) DNA sequence data to recover a molecular phylogeny for the New Zealand skink fauna, and investigate the origin and diversification of skinks in New Zealand. Our phylogeny includes 32 of the 33 extant described New Zealand skink species (Cyclodina and Oligosoma), the Lord Howe Island skink (C. lichenigera), and representatives from several New Caledonian genera. Neighbour-joining, Maximum Parsimony, Maximum Likelihood, and Bayesian phylogenetic analyses are used to demonstrate that the New Zealand skink species form a single monophyletic lineage, with C. lichenigera representing a closely related sister lineage to the New Zealand radiation. Our relaxed molecular clock analyses indicate that skinks colonised New Zealand in the early Miocene (16-22.6 mya), shortly after the 'Oligocene drowning' event (approximately 25 mya). We propose that skinks reached New Zealand from New Caledonia via long-distance overwater dispersal, with C. lichenigera persisting on volcanic islands along the Lord Howe Rise and Norfolk Ridge. Eight major genetic clades are evident within the New Zealand skink fauna, with the divergences among these clades during the early to mid-Miocene resulting in distinct open habitat, forest, and coastal radiations. Subsequent diversification in the late Miocene-Pliocene appears to coincide with tectonic activity along the Alpine Fault and the uplift of the Southern Alps. We were unable to resolve the phylogenetic affinities of O. suteri, New Zealand's only native oviparous skink. We use the phylogeny and topology tests to resolve several taxonomic issues and assess the taxonomic status of several suspected undescribed taxa. We complete a generic revision for the New Zealand skink fauna, placing C. lichenigera and all native New Zealand species into a single genus.