Kopuatai Peat Dome
Kopuatai Peat Dome is the brown footprint-shaped area at centre
LocationNorth Island, New Zealand
Area10,201 hectares (25,210 acres)
Designated4 December 1989
Reference no.444[1]

The Kopuatai Peat Dome is a large peatland complex on the Hauraki Plains in the North Island of New Zealand. It consists of two raised domes, one in the north and the other in the south, that are up to three metres higher at the center than at the edge.[2] The 10,201 hectares (25,210 acres) wetland contains the largest intact raised bog in New Zealand and was listed under the Ramsar Convention in 1989 as a Wetland of International Importance.[3] Most of the wetland is ombrotrophic, meaning it receives water and nutrient inputs solely from rain and is hydrologically isolated from the surrounding canals and rivers.[4] Locally, a popular misconception persists that water flows from the nearby Piako River into the bog and that the wetland acts as a significant store for floodwater.[5]

History of the wetland

Kopuatai has survived extensive draining of the wetlands on the Hauraki Plains and was given protection in 1987 when it came under the administration of the newly formed Department of Conservation.[6]

Scientific and conservation value

Looking westward from the center of Kopuatai bog towards the Hapuakohe Range.

Kopuatai contains the largest remaining population of Sporadanthus ferrugineus, a peat-forming plant that was once widespread in the upper North Island, but is now found in only a few places, in the Hauraki Plains and Waikato basin.[7] S. ferrugineus in turn provides the only known food source for the rare endemic moth Houdinia flexilissima, also known as 'Fred the thread', described as recently as 2006 and remarkable for being the thinnest caterpillar in the world.[8] A number of other undescribed insect species are thought to inhabit the peat dome. Other plant species found at Kopuatai are the peat-forming plant Empodisma robustum and the fern Gleichenia dicarpa.

Kopuatai is remarkable for being an exceptionally strong sink for carbon dioxide compared to other bogs globally.[9] Carbon dioxide is absorbed from the atmosphere by the peat-forming plants and transformed into peat which can be up to 12 meters thick in parts of the bog.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Kopuatai Peat Dome". Ramsar Sites Information Service. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  2. 1 2 Irving, S.; Skinner, M.; Thompson, K. (1984). Kopuatai Peat Dome - A Vegetation Survey. Crown Land Series No.12. University of Waikato and Department of Lands and Survey, Hamilton, New Zealand.
  3. ↑ "Report for Kopuatai Peat Dome, Ramsar Site No.: 444, Wetlands International Site Reference No.: 5NZ004". Ramsar Sites Information Service. Wetlands International. 2012. Archived from the original on 16 April 2013. Retrieved 15 January 2012.
  4. ↑ Maggs, G (1997). "Hydrology of the Kopuatai Peat Dome". New Zealand Journal of Hydrology. 36 (2): 147–172. JSTOR 43944791.
  5. ↑ "Cyclones put focus on flood protection measures in the Waikato". Stuff. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
  6. ↑ Hunt, Janet (2007). Wetlands of New Zealand. Random House New Zealand. ISBN 978-1-86941-904-2.
  7. ↑ de Lange, P.J, Heenan, P.B.,Clarkson, B.D., Clarkson, B.R. (1999). "Taxonomy, ecology, and conservation of Sporadanthus (Restionaceae) in New Zealand". New Zealand Journal of Botany. 37 (3): 413–431. doi:10.1080/0028825X.1999.9512645.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. ↑ Hoare, Robert; Dugdale, John; Watts, Corinne (2 November 2006). "The world's thinnest caterpillar? A new genus and species of Batrachedridae (Lepidoptera) from Sporadanthus ferrugineus (Restionaceae), a threatened New Zealand plant". Invertebrate Systematics. 20 (5): 571–583. doi:10.1071/IS06009. ISSN 1447-2600.
  9. ↑ Ratcliffe, Joshua L.; Campbell, David I.; Clarkson, Beverley R.; Wall, Aaron M.; Schipper, Louis A. (March 2019). "Water table fluctuations control CO2 exchange in wet and dry bogs through different mechanisms". Science of the Total Environment. 655: 1037–1046. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.11.151. ISSN 0048-9697. PMID 30577098. S2CID 58588410.

37°26′S 175°33′E / 37.433°S 175.550°E / -37.433; 175.550

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