Restoration of a mined restiad peat bog: from experiment to application

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Restoration of a mined restiad peat bog from
experiment to application

• Louis Schipper, Bev Clarkson, and
• Corinne Watts
• Landcare Research,
• Hamilton

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Restiad Peat Bogs
manuka
Empodisma

• Threatened ecosystem, now confined to
  Waikato-Hauraki Plains
• Dominated by Empodisma minus and Sporadanthus
  ferrugineus

Sporadanthus
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Aerial view of Torehape Bog Imagery sourced
from Terralink International Limited

• Mined for horticultural peat
• Required to be restored to original bog vegetation

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Mining
Restoration
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1. Restoration experiment

• Aim To establish bog vegetation rapidly to
  decrease peat degradation
• Method Factorial field experiment
• 4 fertiliser applications (N, P, NP, 0)
• 3 seed applications (manuka, Sporadanthus, 0)
• 2 cultivation/water table treatments (raised, 0)
• Plot size 5X5m, n72

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Total plant cover at two yearsNon-raised plots
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Available Phosphorus
Extractable P ug/cm3
250
200
16 months
150
100
50
0
Applied fertiliser
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1. Experiment Summary

• Veg growth cover raised plots better than
  non-raised
• above the winter flooding level
• milled peat had more nutrients than non-raised
  peat
• milled peat provided better rooting environment
• Raised plots with manuka seed ? very dense
  manuka, excluding other species
• On non-raised plots fertiliser increased cover

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Adaptations for whole mine restoration

• Islands of processed peat scattered over mined
  surface
• Seeded with 1-2 branches of manuka slash
• Rationale vegetated islands become a seed source
  for further species spread onto surrounding bare
  surface

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Buffer
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Buffer
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Buffer
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Spreading?
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2. Island Approach Summary

• Vegetation cover, height species number are
  increasing
• Key peat-forming species establish early
• As cover increases, beetle composition (
  invertebrates generally) becomes more similar to
  buffer zone
• Peat island technique effective in initiating
  restoration of plants invertebrates in mined
  bogs
• Simple

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Acknowledgements

• FRST
• Russell Gamman Mining
• DOC - Rachel Kelleher, Shannon Fergie
• LCR - Maja Vojvodic-Vukovic, Matthew Taylor, Gary
  Barker, Neil Fitzgerald, Ray Webster, David
  Hunter
• EW - Karen Denyer,
• KPMG, New Zealand Peat (Bruce Smith)