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System Title	4.5 New Zealand 'Eco Regions' - Harding & Winterbourn
Keywords	Eco regions; stream invertebrate fauna; water chemistry; eco-regionalisation; rivers
Description	This is a freshwater eco region classification based on six macro environmental variables. These variables are: vegetation cover bed rock geology soils relief rainfall normals The Meteorological Service Climatic Regions. 1:1,000,000 and 1:2,000,000 scale maps of these variables were merged and integrated by GIS (SI) or by hand (NI). 25 eco regions were identified with 13 in the North Island and 12 in the South Island. Eco regions range in size from 900 to 12,000 km2. Some include small noncontiguous components. The water chemistry and benthic invertebrate faunas of 100 headwater streams were sampled to evaluate the distinctiveness of 10 South Island eco regions. Most of the tested eco regions had a characteristic assemblage of invertebrates in their headwater streams, while water chemistry was highly variable among eco regions
Original Purpose	To provide a tool for freshwater biologists and resource managers to use when assessing the effects of activities and management techniques.
Status	Developed in 1997 using a Department of Conservation research grant.
Organisation	Department of Conservation
Jurisdiction	New Zealand
Contact person/position	Jon Harding Scientist
Address	Cawthron Institute Private Bag 2 Nelson Phone +64 3 548 2319 Fax +64 3 546 9464 Email: jon@cawthron.org.nz
Available format	Published report; scientific papers
Access	Freely available
Geographical coverage	New Zealand

 

Operational Specifications
Scale of Operation	Boundaries are based on data transcribed from 1:1,000,000 and 1:2,000,000 maps.
GIS Compatibility	Requires accurate location data.
Relationship between levels in the classification system	Nonhierarchical. The contributing databases operate at the same level.
Contributing databases/ classification systems	New Zealand Climatic Regions(New Zealand Meteorological Service 1983) - used to indicate comparable hydrological, temperature and climatic conditions. Rainfall normals(1951-1980) representing the mean annual rainfall over a 30 year period - used to indicate potential differences in stream flow between streams in each eco region (New Zealand Meteorological Service,1985). Vegetative cover from the Vegetation Map of New Zealand (Newsome, 1987) - used to indicate current land use patterns. Soil type - used to give perspective of past regional climate, topography, vegetation and bedrock material, and potential ground water chemistry. Bedrock geology and soils (New Zealand Geological Survey 1972a,b; 1973a,b) were measured because of their effects on water chemistry and on catchment and channel morphology. Relief (New Zealand Lands and Survey, 1989) was used as surrogate of temperature.
Contributing database GIS compatibility	The South Island databases have been digitised using GIS Terrasoft. While not currently digitised it is likely that the North Island databases could be digitised.
Relationship with other classification systems and spatial frameworks.	It is not related to the NIWA river environment classification system.
Relationship with other databases	N/A

 

Current and emerging use for:
Assisting with determining historic state/ baseline	The framework may assist with the identification of expected freshwater species and biological communities in the absence of disturbance. This would be at an eco region level rather than for a specific river.
Assisting with determining current state/ baseline	The framework could provide a context to assess the status of freshwater ecosystems and their relative significance.
Asssisting with scenario building and modelling of possible futures	The framework may assist with modelling scenarios at a general level.
Risk Assesment	Possible - needs investigation
Monitoring site selection and sample design	Eco regions could be used for freshwater and freshwater biodiversity coarse level stratification. They would not be useful for finer level stratification. Further subdivisions would be required at the sub-regional level.
Analysing results (including variation)	The framework could be used for freshwater and freshwater biodiversity purposes.
Aggregating and reporting data locally, regionally and/or nationally	The framework could be used to aggregate and report data relating to freshwater and freshwater biodiversity. Aggregation would be to the eco-region and national levels.

Current use (who,level,why)

The system has been used in several university studies

User friendliness/public and decision maker understanding

The eco regions have been mapped and described. The names and descriptions are easy to follow.

Framework strengths

• Simple system, logical
• Easy to follow
• User-friendly names and descriptions for eco regions

Current limitations of framework

• Underlying databases are at a very coarse scale.
• The eco region maps are drawn at a coarse scale. It may therefore be difficult to identify eco region boundaries on the ground.
• The framework has not been fully trialed and is not currently being used.
• The validity of testing headwater stream benthic fauna to verify the eco region boundaries has been questioned. Further work would be needed to verify this approach. For example would the eco region boundaries be confirmed if other types of biota were tested (e.g. fish, macrophytes) and/or sampling was carried out in other reaches of rivers.
• New Zealand river systems, especially in their lowland reaches, are heavily modified. In determining priorities for protection, naturalness and intactness are probably more important than representativeness for rivers (C.Richmond, pers comm). This may reduce the value of a biogeographical framework for rivers.
• There may be greater diversity within an eco region than between eco regions. This has been questioned by the developer in light of data presented in Harding et al 1997.
• It is possible that some of the observed differences between eco regions are human induced. For example the South East Forest eco-region may be a more intact version of the Southland Plains.

References

Harding,J.S; Winterbourn,M.J.1997. New Zealand eco regions: a classification for use in stream conservation and management. Department of Conservation technical series No. 11. Department of Conservation: Wellington. 26p.

Harding,J.S. 1994. Lotic eco regions of New Zealand. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. University of Canterbury. 191p; (database references, p7)

Harding,J.S; Winterbourn, M.J; McDiffett, W.F. 1997, Stream faunas and eco regions in the South Island, New Zealand : do they correspond? Archiv for Hydrobiologie (140) 3: 289-307.

Harding,J.S; Winterbourn, M.J. 1997. An eco-region classification of the South Island, New Zealand, Journal of Environmental Management 51:275-287.