New Zealand, showing mountains dividing a wet largely forested west coast from a drier east coast.
The environment of New Zealand is characterised by an endemic flora and fauna which has evolved in near isolation from the rest of the world.[1] The main islands of New Zealand span two biomes, temperate and subtropical, complicated by large mountainous areas above the tree line.[2] There are also numerous smaller islands which extend into the subantarctic. The prevailing weather systems bring significantly more rain to the west of the country. New Zealand's territorial waters cover a much larger area than its landmass and extend over the continental shelf and abyssal plateau in the South Pacific Ocean, Tasman Sea and Southern ocean.
Historically having an isolated and endemic ecosystem far into modernity, the arrival of Polynesians about 1300 AD[3] and then later European settlers began to have significant impacts on this system, with the intentional and unintentional introduction of new species and plants which often overwhelmed their natural competitors, leading to a significant loss of native ecology and biodiversity, especially in areas such as bird life.
Today, most parts of New Zealand are heavily modified by the effects of logging, agriculture and general human settlement, though large areas have also been placed under protection, combined in many cases with efforts to protect or regenerate native ecosystems (aided by the fact that especially the South Island of New Zealand has a very low population density).
^Walter, H. & Breckle, S-W. (2002). Walter's Vegetation of the Earth: The Ecological Systems of the Geo-Biosphere. New York: Springer-Verlag, p. 86, [1].
^Bunce, Michael; Beavan, Nancy R.; Oskam, Charlotte L.; Jacomb, Christopher; Allentoft, Morten E.; Holdaway, Richard N. (7 November 2014). "An extremely low-density human population exterminated New Zealand moa". Nature Communications. 5: 5436. Bibcode:2014NatCo...5.5436H. doi:10.1038/ncomms6436. ISSN 2041-1723. PMID 25378020.
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