New Zealand’s native ecosystems store carbon. We need to better understand how to measure and manage our native carbon stocks. This could improve biodiversity, help us to store more carbon and make ecosystems more resilient to severe weather events and a warming climate.

Maximising Carbon in Native Systems is a DOC-led research programme currently focused on three research areas.

Improving location detection accuracy and trialing remote sensing technology

Remote sensing tools show promise for measuring forest carbon stocks and forest health at large scales.

DOC will establish field laboratory sites on public conservation land to:

• determine how best to use current technology to accurately capture locations in forests
• collect vegetation data with high location accuracy
• test remote sensing technology and develop protocols for using it to measure native vegetation.

Change in carbon pools over time – is there evidence of introduced browser impacts?

New Zealand has large numbers of introduced browsers including deer, goats and possums. Understanding how forests change when introduced browsers are present is essential for effective forest management and forest carbon storage decisions.

While these animals can damage forests, understanding their effects on forest carbon stocks is difficult as changes in forest structure occur over long periods of time.

Working with Te Uru Rākau (New Zealand Forest Service) to measure forests on public conservation land, we are using data collected from forest areas over many decades and collecting new data from the same sites. Analysing this data will help us investigate any links between vegetation change and herbivore numbers in mature native forests.

Because animal impacts are expected to be especially important to future carbon stocks in young forests, we are also studying this environment, to find out what happens to forest development when animals are removed.

Peatland rewetting for carbon and biodiversity

Peatlands are a type of wetland that store a lot of carbon. When peatlands are drained, they become degraded and the carbon is released, which contributes to climate warming. New Zealand has many degraded and drained peatlands. If we improve our knowledge about the effectiveness of rewetting and restoring them, we could implement measures to reduce carbon being released and over time they could become significant carbon sinks.

We will:

• improve our knowledge of the location and health of peatlands on public conservation land
• undertake trials to rewet and restore peatland areas and monitor how the carbon cycle changes.