Plant succession on moraines of the upper Dart Valley, southern South Island, New Zealand

Abstract

Abstract Development of plant communities is described from a series of low-alpine moraines at 2 sites in the upper Dart Valley, close to the main divide of the Southern Alps, in Mount Aspiring National Park. These moraines probably contain one of the most complete chronosequences of low-alpine vegetation and soil in southern South Island. Results of multivariate analyses of vegetational data enabled an objective description of the plant chronosequence at each site from pioneer to near-climax phases. Current uncertainty with lichenometry based on Rhizocarpon geographicum thalli in Canterbury has frustrated attempts to obtain absolute ages for the moraines. Soil development has led to a weakly podzolised High Country Yellow Brown Earth at both sites. Colour differentiation within the profile and podzolisation are more obvious at the lower altitude site (approx. 1100 m) in association with a Chionochloa pallens-Dracophyllum uniflorum mixed snow tussock-scrub than at the higher site (approx. 1400 m) under a ...