Kopuatai Peat Dome
{{Short description|Wetland in New Zealand}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=April 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}
{{Infobox protected area
| name = Kopuatai Peat Dome
| photo = Kopuatai peat dome.jpg
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| photo_caption = Kopuatai Peat Dome is the brown footprint-shaped area at centre
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| location = North Island, New Zealand
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| area = {{convert|10201|ha}}
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| embedded = {{Designation list
| embed = yes
| designation1 = Ramsar
| designation1_date = 4 December 1989
| designation1_number = 444{{Cite web|title=Kopuatai Peat Dome|website=Ramsar Sites Information Service|url=https://rsis.ramsar.org/ris/444|access-date=25 April 2018}}}}
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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.{{Cite book |last1=Irving |first1=S. |last2=Skinner |first2=M. |last3=Thompson |first3=K. |date=1984|title=Kopuatai Peat Dome - A Vegetation Survey. Crown Land Series No.12. University of Waikato and Department of Lands and Survey, Hamilton, New Zealand}} The {{convert|10201|ha}} 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.wetlands.org/reports/spec.cfm?site_id=579|title=Report for Kopuatai Peat Dome, Ramsar Site No.: 444, Wetlands International Site Reference No.: 5NZ004|year=2012|work=Ramsar Sites Information Service|publisher=Wetlands International|access-date=15 January 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130416040319/http://www.wetlands.org/reports/spec.cfm?site_id=579|archive-date=16 April 2013|url-status=dead}} 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.{{Cite journal|last=Maggs|first=G|date=1997|title=Hydrology of the Kopuatai Peat Dome|journal=New Zealand Journal of Hydrology|volume=36|issue=2|pages=147–172|jstor=43944791}} 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.{{Cite web|url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/opinion/91792782/cyclones-put-focus-on-flood-protection-measures-in-the-waikato.html|title=Cyclones put focus on flood protection measures in the Waikato|website=Stuff|language=en|access-date=2018-11-27}}
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.{{cite book
| last = Hunt
| first = Janet
| title = Wetlands of New Zealand
| publisher = Random House New Zealand
| year = 2007
| isbn = 978-1-86941-904-2}}
Scientific and conservation value
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.{{Cite journal|last=de Lange, P.J, Heenan, P.B.,Clarkson, B.D., Clarkson, B.R.|date=1999|title=Taxonomy, ecology, and conservation of Sporadanthus (Restionaceae) in New Zealand|journal=New Zealand Journal of Botany|volume=37|issue=3|pages=413–431|doi=10.1080/0028825X.1999.9512645}} 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.{{Cite journal|last1=Hoare|first1=Robert|last2=Dugdale|first2=John|last3=Watts|first3=Corinne|date=2006-11-02|title=The world's thinnest caterpillar? A new genus and species of Batrachedridae (Lepidoptera) from Sporadanthus ferrugineus (Restionaceae), a threatened New Zealand plant|url=http://www.publish.csiro.au/is/IS06009|journal=Invertebrate Systematics|language=en|volume=20|issue=5|pages=571–583|doi=10.1071/IS06009|issn=1447-2600}} 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.{{Cite journal|last1=Ratcliffe|first1=Joshua L.|last2=Campbell|first2=David I.|last3=Clarkson|first3=Beverley R.|last4=Wall|first4=Aaron M.|last5=Schipper|first5=Louis A.|date=March 2019|title=Water table fluctuations control CO2 exchange in wet and dry bogs through different mechanisms|journal=Science of the Total Environment|volume=655|pages=1037–1046|doi=10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.11.151|pmid=30577098|s2cid=58588410 |issn=0048-9697}} 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.
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/land-and-freshwater/wetlands/wetlands-by-region/waikato/kopuatai-peat-dome/ Department of Conservation] - Kopuatai Peat Dome
- [http://www.wetlandtrust.org.nz/Kopouatai.html Wetland Trust] - Kopuatai Peat Dome
- [https://waiber.com/projects/carbon-exchange-in-restiad-wetlands/ Carbon exchange in restiad wetlands]
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