HR: 09:30h
AN: NB51D-05    [Abstracts]
TI: Identifying River Catchments of National Importance for Indigenous Biodiversity in New Zealand
AU: * Chadderton, W L
EM: lchadderton@doc.govt.nz
AF: Department of Conservation, P.O. Box 13049, Christchurch, New Zealand
AU: Brown, D J
EM: dbrown@doc.govt.nz
AF: Department of Conservation, P.O. Box 13049, Christchurch, New Zealand
AU: Stephens, T S
EM: tstephens@doc.govt.nz
AF: Department of Conservation, P.O. Box 13049, Christchurch, New Zealand
AB: We describe a process to identify the minimum set of catchments that best represents the full range of indigenous biodiversity in New Zealand rivers. Our assessment addressed the contrasting objectives of the maintenance of viable populations of all indigenous freshwater species and protection of the full range of riverine habitats and ecosystems. In the absence of nationally comprehensive biodiversity data, we used surrogate information derived from spatially explicit environmental, biogeographic and human disturbance data. We divided the country into 29 biogeographic units and used river classes defined by the (NZ) River Environment Classification to characterise environmental variance among river catchments. Catchments over 100 ha were ranked according to the degree of human induced disturbance pressure, on the assumption that least degraded systems retain most indigenous biodiversity. A natural heritage score for each catchment was created by combining measures of environmental representation and human disturbance pressure with information on threatened species and connectivity to wetlands, lakes and estuaries.
UR: http://www.doc.govt.nz/Conservation/Freshwater/Waterbodies-of-National-Importance/index.asp
DE: 9810 New fields (not classifiable under other headings)
SC: North American Benthological Society [NB]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly