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Story: Grasslands

Less water

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Less water

This graph shows a decrease in the amount of water taken from a catchment in the Lammerlaw Range, eastern Otago, between 1980 and 2004. In 1982 the catchment was planted in radiata pine. A study compared it with an adjoining catchment of narrow-leaved snow tussock grassland. By 2004, 22 years after the pines were planted, the pine catchment was producing 37% less water than the tussock grassland catchment.

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How to cite this page

Alan F. Mark, Grasslands – Human impact, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/graph/13364/less-water (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Alan F. Mark, published 1 March 2009.