Vegetation and landscape of the West Cape District, Fiordland, New Zealand

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Abstract
The region between Dusky Sound and Chalky Inlet is a rolling peneplain gently inclined from sea cliffs to rounded mountain slopes 8 km inland. Granite outcrops as hillocks. and depressions are generally underlain by cemented gravels. The area appears to be unglaciated. The climate is probably like that of similar terrain at Puysegur Point, 27 km to the south-east, which receives less than a third of the rainfall of the precipitous country further north at Milford Sound and Deep Cove, although the number of rain days is greater. Persistent westerly winds and low hours of sunshine can be assumed. Site and vegetation classes form a gradient from forest and seral communities on unconsolidated, unweathered substrata (A), through tall forest on stable soils (B), to stunted vegetation on infertile soils (C). The last is the most extensive, nnd has an extreme manifestation in areas of gentle topography where the needle-leaved snow tussock, Chionochloa acicularis, is dominant. Representative transects show the reduction in height of vegetation from A to C, and changes in dominant and subordinate species. Coastal and upland (=350 m) vegetation is briefly described. Salt spray appears to be an important factor in the formation of peat, which blankets most Class U sites to depths of up to 1 m, and occurs discontinuously on Class C sites. The gradient A–C is largely one of increasing podzolisation and worsening drainaJe, Chionochloa grassland replacing woody vegetation where the leached. humic silt loam containing roots is either less than 15–20 em deep, or completely waterlogged. Plants of Leptospermum scoparium, Dacrydium intermedium. and D. biforme on these sItes develop into low-growing clones of layering shoots. Floristic peculiarities of the area include abundance of Sprengella incarnata, apparent absence or Phyllocadus alpinus. Hedycarya arborea, and Horeria glabrata. and, In one locality, the absence of Nothofagus from apparently suitable lites.

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