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Trampling Impacts on Thermotolerant Vegetation of Geothermal Areas in New Zealand

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Abstract

Geothermal features such as geysers, mud pools, sinter terraces, fumaroles, hot springs, and steaming ground are natural attractions often visited by tourists. Visitation rates for such areas in the Taupo Volcanic Zone of New Zealand are in the order of hundreds of thousands annually. These areas are also habitat for rare and specialized plant and microbial communities that live in the steam-heated soils of unusual chemical composition. We evaluated historical and current trampling impacts of tourists on the thermotolerant vegetation of the Waimangu and Waiotapu geothermal areas near Rotorua, and compared the results to experimental trampling at a third site (Taheke) not used by tourists. Historical tourism has removed vegetation and soil from around key features, and remaining subsoil is compacted into an impervious pavement on which vegetation recolonization is unlikely in the short term. Social tracks made by tourists were present at both tourist sites often leading them onto hotter soils than constructed tracks. Vegetation height and cover were lower on and adjacent to social tracks than further from them. Thermotolerant vegetation showed extremely low resistance to experimental trampling. This confirms and extends previous research that also shows that thallophytes and woody shrubs, life forms that dominate in thermotolerant vegetation, are vulnerable to trampling damage. Preservation of these vulnerable ecosystems must ensure that tourist traffic is confined to existing tracks or boardwalks, and active restoration of impacted sites may be warranted.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. We thank Corinne Watts, Neil Fitzgerald, and Mark Smale for assistance with field work, and Sarah Wyse for assistance in drafting Fig. 1. Bronek Kasmirov, Chris Jenkins, and Phil Alley (Department of Conservation) helped facilitate our visits to the study areas. We also thank the generous cooperation of Harvey James at Waimangu, Alex Leinhardt at Waiotapu, and Jim Hackett at Taheke for allowing us access to the study areas and willingly sharing with us their local knowledge. We also thank two anonymous referees for helpful criticisms of the paper.

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  1. Bruce R. Burns

    Present address: School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Landcare Research, Private Bag 3127, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Bruce R. Burns

  2. Faculty of Environment, Society and Design, Lincoln University, P.O. Box 84, Canterbury, New Zealand

    Jonet Ward

  3. Centre for Biodiversity and Ecology Research, University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Theresa M. Downs

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  1. Bruce R. Burns
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Correspondence to Bruce R. Burns.

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Burns, B.R., Ward, J. & Downs, T.M. Trampling Impacts on Thermotolerant Vegetation of Geothermal Areas in New Zealand. Environmental Management 52, 1463–1473 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-013-0187-5

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