Kopuatai Peat Dome facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Kopuatai Peat Dome |
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Kopuatai Peat Dome - the brown footprint-shaped area centre
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| Location | North Island, New Zealand |
| Area | 10,201 hectares (25,210 acres) |
| Designated: | 4 December 1989 |
| Reference #: | 444 |
The Kopuatai Peat Dome is a large peatland complex located in the North Island of New Zealand and consists of two raised domes, one in the north the other in the south. These are up to three meters higher at the center than at the edge. The 10,201 hectares (25,210 acres) wetland contains the largest intact raised bog in New Zealand and was listed under the Ramsar Convention in 1989 as a Wetland of International Importance. Most of the wetland is 'ombrotrophic' meaning it receives water and nutrient inputs solely from rain and is hydrologically isolated from the surrounding canals and rivers. Locally, a popular misconception persists that water flows from the nearby Piako River into the bog and that the wetland acts as a significant store for floodwater.
History of the wetland
Kopuatai has survived extensive draining of the wetlands on the Hauraki Plains and was given protection in 1987 when it came under the administration of the newly formed Department of Conservation.
Scientific and Conservation value
Kopuatai is one of only three sites to contain the plant Sporadanthus ferrugineus a formally widespread but now rare peatforming plant found only in the upper north island of New Zealand. S. ferrugineus in turn provides the only known food source for a rare endemic moth Houdinia flexilissima known as 'Fred the thread' described as recently as 2006 and remarkable for being the thinnest caterpillar in the world a number of other undescribed insect species are thought to inhabit the peat dome. Other plant species found at Kopuatai are the peat-forming plant Empodisma robustum and the fern Gleichenia dicarpa.
Kopuatai is remarkable for being an exceptionally strong sink for carbon dioxide compared to other bogs globally, carbon dioxide is absorbed from the atmosphere by the peat-forming plants and transformed into peat which can be up to 12 meters thick in parts of the bog.
