NZ biota

Question 1

Why is New Zealand unusual?

Answer 1

Isolated, temperate, oceanic climate, mountainous, has a history of disturbances, infertile soil, last major settles land mass

Question 2

Native taxa?

Answer 2

Breed naturally but also found else where

Question 3

Endemic taxa?

Answer 3

Found nowhere else “naturally found only in specific geographical area restricted mostly restricted in size”

Question 4

Dispersal

Answer 4

Dispersal is when a few members of a species move to a new geographical area,

Question 5

Vicariance

Answer 5

Vicariance is when a natural situation arises to physically divide organisms.

Question 6

Key event in NZ biota

Answer 6

80MYA= tasmen sea starts to open

60MYA= tasmen sea stops widening
25= oligocene drowning
10= tectonic uplift begins
2= Pleistocene glaciation
0.001= humans arrive

Question 7

Oligocene

Answer 7

25 MYA was warm, high sea levels, NZ was low relief, so
most was under water (but apparently not all)

Note that if all of NZ had been under water, there would be no
Moa’s Ark of Gondwana species

Question 8

Tectonic activity
Expected effects
on biota:

Answer 8

More pronounced
phylogeographic
patterns
East
-west splits
along Southern
Alps

Question 9

The NZ flora

Answer 9

2200 native vascular plant
species
NZ nearly all forested prehuman
a mix of Gondwanan and
more recent groups

Question 10

4 features of
NZ plants

Answer 10

1. Large proportion of species are trees
2. Few species are deciduous
3. Common plant/bird mutualisms
4. Simple, white flowers common

Question 11

What history effects biota

Answer 11

Gondwana
tectonic uplift and volcanism, glaciation
isolated position in Southern Ocean