New Zealand's naturally uncommon ecosystems

Abstract

We provide an overview of naturally uncommon ecosystems in New Zealand. Terrestrial ecosystems that were rare before humans colonised New Zealand often have highly specialised and diverse assemblages of flora and fauna, characterised by endemic and rare species. A national-scale typology provides a list of 72 naturally uncommon ecosystems distributed across the country. These may be small (e.g. 100 m2 to a few hundreds of hectares) but geographically widespread, or larger (e.g. 10 000s of hectares) but geographically restricted. Many of these ecosystems occur in azonal environments that lack trees, despite often lying below the regional treeline. Naturally uncommon ecosystems have been highlighted as priorities for protection of rare and threatened native biodiversity on private land and are recognised as such by government departments and territorial authorities. To support this, policymakers must be able to identify instances of naturally uncommon ecosystems, to know where they occur, and to know how threatened they are. Approaches have been developed to map the distribution of each ecosystem based on combinations of modelling from existing spatial layers, interpretation of remotely sensed images, literature, and local knowledge. Web-based factsheets have been prepared for all 72 ecosystems to allow them to be readily identified in the field. Criteria for the IUCN’s draft Ecosystem Red List have been applied to New Zealand’s naturally uncommon ecosystems and have resulted in 18 being ranked as critically endangered, 17 as endangered, and 10 as vulnerable. Further information is provided for the 18 critically endangered ecosystems.

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