A Study of the Tall-Tussock Grassland Vegetation-Soil Systems in the Tararua Mountains of New Zealand

Abstract

In New Zealand, tussock grassland is composed of bunch-forming grass species and tall-tussocks. The low tussocks are extensive on drier areas up to about 3500 ft. a.s.l., and the tall tussocks occupy dry lowland areas, and cool humid areas, both above and below the timber line (Mark, 1969). Most research in New Zealand has been on the snow tussock grasslands of the "cooler and wetter hill climates" of the Eastern and inland South Island (Robertson, 1959) which are used for grazing and are strongly modified (Connor, 1961, 1965; Connor and MacRae, 1968). Apart from Burrows (1967, 1968 a and b), very little work has been done in the snow tussock grasslands of the "high rainfall mountain climates" of both Islands (Robertson, 1959), and a recent review by Mark (1969) demonstrated that studies dealing with the vegetation-soil relationships in this climatic region are particularly sparse.