Macrofossil evidence for pre-settlement vegetation of Central Otago's basin floors and gorges

Composition of pre-settlement vegetation communities in the semi-arid Central Otago lowlands has been one of New Zealand's long-standing ecological puzzles. Uncertainty is due largely to a paucity of fossil data. Here, we provide new evidence for pre-settlement vegetation in the region based on analyses of plant macrofossils from 15 late Pleistocene and Holocene lowland sites. The assemblages represent two habitat types: wooded or partially wooded intermontane basin-floor wetlands, and low forest and/or shrubland habitats in the Kawarau and Clutha River gorges. In both habitat types, plant communities appear to have been predominantly woody, with significant components of herbaceous dicotyledons but few grasses. Both habitats seem to have undergone major post-settlement vegetation transformation. Several presently common taxa were rare or absent before human settlement, but others (including threatened spring annuals), now rare or extinct in the region, were formerly more common. (author). 57 refs., 5 figs., 3 tabs