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New Zealand Ecology

Cloze Test Worksheet

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Country Flag New Zealand

Date Shared: 15 May 2022

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The study of plants and animals from around the world was a major part of the exploration of the world by sea from countries such as Britain and Spain in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The crews on the large ships included scientists whose job was to discover new natural resources and name, describe and collect samples of them. This resulted in the numbers of known plant species going from 20 000 at the beginning of the 18th century, to 40 000 at the beginning of the 19th century. Almost 400 000 plant species are known today. The first Polynesian and European settlers in New Zealand found islands covered in forest, grasses, alpine plants and swamplands, each area with unique plants and animals, endemic to New Zealand – found nowhere else in the world. However, both groups of people found living conditions in New Zealand harsh and had to find new ways to survive, using New Zealand’s natural resources. Over the years this resulted in removal of large areas of forest and tussock through burning and harvesting; drainage of wetlands; and generation of many forms of pollution. This and the introduction of new species, particularly mammals and pasture grasses, changed the landscape forever and resulted in many New Zealand plant and animal species becoming extinct. Now ninety per cent of our wetlands have been drained or degraded Lowland forest areas have been reduced to 15% of their pre-Maori extent. Only 10% of the tall tussock grassland that existed in 1840 remains. Half of our endemic bird species have become extinct since people first came to New Zealand. About 500 species of animals and plants are threatened with extinction. However, scientific thinking about ecology means people now have better understanding of the interrelationships between living organisms, and of the effects that humans and natural events have on biological communities. We can work towards conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Although it is tempting to think that our early human ancestors lived ‘in harmony with nature’, from earliest times people tried to find ways to use natural resources to their advantage, sometimes developing ingenious technologies – tools and techniques – to do so. Even Stone Age people made use of fire, and had stone weapons and tools for catching and killing animals for food – more than a million years ago. By around 17 000 years ago, people had learned by trial and error how to domesticate animals such as sheep and dogs, and plants such as maize and wheat, by choosing and breeding those that were suitable for food or valuable fibres, or that would help with transporting or protecting their human owners. Over thousands of years, many domesticated species of animals and plants became very different from their ancestors New Zealand’s only native mammals are two species of bat, and marine mammals such as Hector’s dolphins (endemic) and New Zealand fur seals or Kekeno. Since the arrival of humans, New Zealand’s ecological diversity has been modified by the introduction of a large number of other species – 33 mammals, 33 birds, one lizard, three frogs, 20 freshwater fish, about 1 000 invertebrates and about 6 000 plants. More mammal species have been introduced into New Zealand than into any other country in the world. Many of the introduced mammal species are important in New Zealand’s agriculture and horticulture industries, e.g. sheep.

Polynesian European forest grasses endemic natural forest burning wetlands pollution species landscape extinct ninety tussock bird extinction ecology events sustainable Stone fire weapons animals million domesticate dogs food protecting domesticated ancestors bat dolphins seals diversity mammals birds frogs plants mammal world

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15 May 2022

crillstone Author Country Flag

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