The ecology of Lake Ellesmere spit
1957
Wraight, M. J.
Lake Ellesmere Spit is a long narrow strip of land which divides Lake Ellesmere from the sea, lying between latitudes 43º47’ S. and 43º57’ S. It is an area of about 17,000 acres and stretches from Banks Peninsula to Taumutu a distance of some 17.3 miles. At the eastern end of the spit the width varies between 3.1 miles and 1.5 miles according to the lake level while at the western end it is only a few chains wide. Sand dunes rising to 60 feet above sea level are present along the sea coast, a strip of flats at times submerged by the lake and affected by its partly saline water occurs along the lake edge of the spit while in the centre between these two regions is the main body of the spit, varying in height from 6 to 40 feet above sea level. For the past hundred years the area has been used for grazing sheep and small numbers of cattle in a manner similar to that on the rest of New Zealand’s unimproved grazing lands. Climate does not vary over the spit so that this study is one of the relation of vegetation to edaphic conditions and of vegetation to biotic influences. An ecological study evaluating the reasons for the existence of the definite pattern of vegetation on Lake Ellesmere Spit should help in the planning of any future cultural improvement to the spit as a grazing proposition, but also the results, especially those from the study of the interactions of grazing animals and vegetation, should aid in the understanding of the vaster areas of the country’s tussock grasslands.
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