SCIENCE & RESEARCH SERIES NO.37 RESEARCH DIRECTIONS FOR CONSERVATION SCIENCE? Five papers presented at the Science & Research Division Department of Conservation 1990 Compiled by Bruce McFadgen and Phillip Simpson Published by Head Office, Department of Conservation, P O Box 10-420, Wellington, New Zealand ISSN 0113-3413 ISBN 0-478-01315-9 © Department of Conservation, 1991 National Library of New Zealand: Cataloguing in Publication Data: Research directions for conservation science? : five papers presented to the Science & Research Division, Department of Conservation, 1990 / Bruce McFadgen and Philip Simpson, compilers. Wellington [N.Z.] : Head Office, Dept. Conservation, c1991. 1 v. (Science & research series, 0113-3713 ; no. 37) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0 478-01315-9 1. Conservation of natural resources--Research--New Zealand. 2. Ecology--Research--New Zealand. 3. Paleontology--New Zealand. 4. Conservation of natural resources--New Zealand - Management. I. McFadgen, B. G. (Bruce Gordon), 1943 - II. Simpson, Philip, 1946-III. New Zealand. Dept. of Conservation. IV. Series: Science & research series ; no. 37. 333.720993 Abstract: Selected papers from the 1990 Science and Research Division Seminar series include Late Pleistocene and Holocene Vegetation and Landscape Studies in New Zealand', by M.S. McGlone; ‘Current Research Issues in the Study of Moas and Moa-Hunting', by Atholl Anderson; ‘Review of the Mammals of New Zealand', by C.M. King; and ‘Changing Human Perceptions of the Natural Environment', by Geoff Park. There is a preface by B. McFadgen and P. Simpson, and a final appraisal by R.M.F.S. Sadleir. The papers concentrate on the connection between scientific research and conservation, and selected avenues of research are suggested and examined. Keywords: Pleistocene, Holocene, vegetation, landscape, moas, introduced mammals, environmental perceptions, future research. PREFACE This publication comprises the five invited papers presented during the Science and Research Division 1990 Seminar Series. Four of the speakers were invited to talk on their special area of expertise. Three were chosen specifically because they were not part of the Department. All were chosen because of the breadth of their experience and the relevance of their discipline to the Department's responsibilities. The intention was to provide an historical perspective on the present day environment and protection issues. The speakers covered diverse topics: Holocene vegetation changes; moas and moahunting in prehistoric New Zealand; the impact of animals introduced since European contact; and changes over time in perceptions of the New Zealand environment. Each speaker was asked to review the current state of knowledge of the chosen topic, outline current problems, give ideas on management implications for the Department, and suggest what they perceived as the role of the Department's Science and Research Division in extending an understanding of the topic. In addition, we sought the comment of the Department in reply, and this was given by Dr R.S.Sadleir, Director of the Science and Research Division. Each paper fulfilled our expectations by providing a provocative assessment. Dr McGlone outlined the effects of natural processes on the vegetation over the last 18 000 years and described the deforestation resulting from human settlement, beginning with the arrival of the first Polynesians about a thousand years ago. He challenged the Department to popularise historical information because greater public interest would help to clarify values and actions to protect our heritage. Dr Anderson drew attention to the woefully inadequate data on which to base understanding of moas and moahunting. Management is only as good as the information it has to work with, and there is a lot of basic research still to be done. Dr Anderson maintained that this research is landscape-based and is perhaps better carried out by the Department's Science and Research Division than by the universities. Dr King challenged conservationists to accept the ecological reality of introduced animals in most of New Zealand's ecosystems. She argued for a triage approach to three classes of land, with a concentrated effort to manage pests in those areas where effort will be rewarded with meaningful ecological success. Dr Park noted that attitudes towards the New Zealand landscape have changed from seeing it as a "repulsive waste" to a "special place". He concluded that integrated studies are needed to chart this change and that the Department's Science and Research Division has a unique opportunity to achieve such a multidisciplinary approach. Dr Sadleir examined the main conclusions from each paper with regard to a set of conservation principles. The principles underlie his comments on future research suggested by the other four seminar speakers. He noted that the department's research must give prior consideration to immediate management problems without, however, totally excluding strategic research. In his opinion, although the directions of research suggested by the other speakers are important to current conservation, he did not rank them highly in terms of current priorities. The papers are intended to be provocative. Readers of this publication are invited to respond to the underlying issue - the nature and direction of research in conservation management. Bruce McFadgen, Science & Research Division Philip Simpson, Science & Research Division Compilers 30 July 1991 CONTENTS PREFACE.................................................................................................................... v LATE PLEISTOCENE AND HOLOCENE VEGETATION AND LANDSCAPE STUDIES IN NEW ZEALAND by M.S. McGlone, ........................................................ 1 CURRENT RESEARCH ISSUES IN THE STUDY OF MOAS AND MOA-HUNTING by Atholl Anderson ......................................................................... 17 REVIEW OF THE MAMMALS OF NEW ZEALAND by Carolyn M. King ..................... 31 CHANGING HUMAN PERCEPTIONS OF THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT by Geoff Park............................................................................................................. 63 PROPOSALS AND PRINCIPLES (PERHAPS?) by R.M.F.S. Sadleir ............................ 75 LATE PLEISTOCENE AND HOLOCENE VEGETATION AND LANDSCAPE STUDIES IN NEW ZEALAND by M.S. McGlone, DSIR Land Resources, Private Bag, Christchurch 1. INTRODUCTION The Holocene, the most recent geological epoch and the one we live in, is defined as beginning 10 000 years ago. At that time global temperatures rose abruptly to present day levels and above, and the greatly expanded ice sheets of the Pleistocene (the last 2 million years) rapidly melted. Since that time the world has enjoyed temperatures much higher than the long-term Pleistocene average. Interglacial (Holocene-like) episodes make up only about 10% of Pleistocene time, and the Pleistocene average temperature is about 3oC cooler than the Holocene. It is important to study the Holocene and the late Pleistocene cold period that immediately preceded it because it was during this 20 000 years that the biota and landscape of New Zealand assumed their present shapes. The forces which did this shaping are still operative and, by understanding them, we can gain insight into how these processes happen, and in what ways human intervention has altered their outcome. Study of these periods can also help us decide what value we should put on a particular part of our legacy from the past. For that reason, the study of the past should interest a government department whose major reason for existence is to preserve that legacy. In this paper I first briefly review the vegetation history of New Zealand in the last 18 000 years and show how this history helps us understand the course of climate and environmental change. I then discuss how historical evidence can help our understanding of the effects of volcanism, erosion, extinctions, and human impact on the environment. Finally, I suggest priority areas for involvement by the Department of Conservation. 2. CLIMATIC CHANGE AND LANDSCAPE CHANGE DURING THE LATE PLEISTOCENE AND HOLOCENE 2.1 Vegetation Change The vast, earth-shaping events of the late Pleistocene epoch transformed the New Zealand landscape. Colder temperatures (annual mean temperatures may have been as much as 5oC lower than now), less rainfall and stronger winds made the southern two-thirds of New Zealand inhospitable for plants. Scrub, grassland, and occasional patches of forest formed a monotonous vegetative cover stretching from the Hamilton Basin southwards. Glaciers filled 1 the mountain valleys of the Southern Alps and flowed out onto the coastal plain in the south- west. Because the vegetation cover was sparse over much of southern New Zealand, frost, wind and rain eroded the soils of hill and mountain slopes. The products of the long period of glacial stripping of soils and carving of rock from the mountain ranges are now widespread in the lowlands as thick coverings of loess and as gravel outwash plains. Some of the most convincing evidence as to the enormity of these events has come from the offshore cores drilled under the auspices of the Deep Sea Drilling Programme. A team led by Professor Campbell Nelson of Waikato University has shown that each time the glaciers advanced in the course of the Pleistocene, the predominant sediment type far off shore changed from carbonates, produced by animal and plant life in the water column, to terrigenous silicates