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New Zealand North Island temperate forests
New Zealand North Island temperate forests
RESOLVE 171
The New Zealand North Island temperate forests cover the warm-temperate to subtropical native forest of the North Island — historically dominated by kauri in the northern half, podocarp-broadleaf forest (rimu, totara, kahikatea, with broadleaf rata and tawa) across the central and southern reaches. Less than 25% of the original native forest remains; surviving fragments are heavily managed against introduced mammalian browsers (possum, deer, goat).
New Zealand North Island temperate forests location on world map
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 39.3°S, 176.1°E.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
Current zone range (2011–2040)
10a-12a
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CHELSA-derived typical winter month at this ecoregion's bbox grid.
Projected (2041–2070)
10a-12b
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Where the CHELSA models say the typical winter month is heading.
Average warming this ecoregion is on track for: +2.6°F by mid-century. SSP3-7.0 (current trajectory) · CHELSA v2.1 bio06 sampled across 10 of 10 points within this ecoregion's bounding box.
Kauri dieback (Phytophthora agathidicida) is the headline forest-health story — climate change does not directly cause it, but warmer winters expand its overwintering window.
Possum + deer + goat browsing pressure compounds with any climate stress on regenerating native species; mountain rata + native mistletoes are most vulnerable.
Garden-relevant: New Zealand natives (Hebe, Phormium, Pittosporum, Coprosma, Olearia, Cordyline) ship globally and remain core warm-temperate garden plants; provenance matters strongly for cold-hardiness even within a single species.
At a glance
States / provinces
Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay, Wellington
Dominant biome
Temperate Broadleaf & Mixed Forests
Realm
Australasia
Approximate area
32,594 sq mi
Elevation range
0 – 5,300 ft
Climate type
Oceanic, subtropical to temperate (Köppen Cfa / Cfb)
Conservation tier
Nature Could Recover (Dinerstein NNH 3)
About the temperate broadleaf & mixed forests biome
Four-season forests of deciduous hardwoods — oak, maple, beech — often mixed with conifers, shaped by warm summers and cold winters. Trees leaf out in spring and color in autumn; the generally fertile soils have made these forests heavily settled and farmed.
Catalog plants suited to this ecoregion
Computed from each plant's stated USDA zone range against this ecoregion's CHELSA-derived current zone range, with the CHELSA mid-century warming delta applied for the projection. Plants whose stated range falls outside both the current and projected zone end up dropped; the rest land in one of the three buckets below.
Collections for this ecoregion
No curated collection's plants all fit this ecoregion's zone range. We surface a collection only when every member would grow here — partial fits get filtered out rather than mislead. As the catalog and the curated set both grow, this section will fill in.
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Climate-aware plant planning — every plant checked against your zone now and in 2050.
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