AbstractsBiology & Animal Science

New Zealand is a land with a unique and very diversified flora which, along with the great range of habitats to be found throughout the country, has given rise to some remarkable plant communities. As a result of a considerable volume of ecological research, mainly by the efforts of Cockayne, our plant associations are well known and delimited. There have, however, been few detailed analyses of their structure and of the factors operating in any of them, Cockayne's work being primarily descriptive. From the developmental point of view the general life-history of the Kauri forest has been known for many years, but nothing more detailed is known about the changes occuring. It is for the above reason that an attempt has been made in the present research to try and elucidate some of these factors while there are still considerable areas of Kauri forest in a more or less untouched state.