island ecology

Quantitative and qualitative studies of understorey regeneration in a mature kohekohe-taraire dominated forest remnant were undertaken before and after the extensive replanting and species reintroduction programme on Tiritiri Matangi, a northern New Zealand island. The changes in regeneration patterns of taraire and kohekohe within this remnant before the restoration programme, and twenty years later, are described.

We highlight three areas of significant progress in ecology since 1989 which are particularly relevant to New Zealand, and three major challenges for the next two decades. Progress: (1) The unusual life histories of New Zealand organisms, including extreme longevity and low reproductive rates, are now seen as efficient responses to the low-disturbance environment present before the arrival of large mammals, including humans.

Pre-human New Zealand had some unusual feeding guilds of birds (e.g. the herbivorous moa fauna), thought to have developed as a result of the absence of a ‘normal’ mammal fauna. Insectivorous birds, on the other hand, are an integral part of all the world’s ecosystems, regardless of the presence or absence of mammals.