New Zealand Journal of Botany abstracts

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Hard beech (Nothofagus truncata) decline on the Mamaku Plateau, North Island, New Zealand

G. P. HOSKING
J. A. HUTCHESON

New Zealand Forest Service
Forest Research Institute
Private Bag, Rotorua, New Zealand

Abstract An investigation into the decline of hard beech on the Mamaku Plateau showed tree death to be due to a loss of new foliage over successive seasons. Severely affected trees shed more than 30% of newly flushed foliage as a result of attack by the leaf-mining weevil Neomycta pulicaris with further losses from attack by the tineid moth Heliostibes vibratrix. Growth and climatic data suggest decline was initiated by drought, with worst affected stands on sites with lowest soil moisture retention capability.

Keywords Nothofagus; drought; defoliation; leaf miner; forest decline

Received 15 August 1985; accepted 16 October 1985
New Zealand Journal of Botany, 1986, Vol. 24 : 263-269
0028-825X/86/2402-0263$2.50/0 © Crown copyright 1986

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (442K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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