After the catastrophic Christchurch earthquakes of 2010 and 2011, the most damaged areas of the city were abandoned. In these areas, wild nature started to return, with widespread regeneration of woody plants.
To better understand the composition of this vegetation, and what the city would have become without people, we collected soil from 78 abandoned properties in the residential ...more ↓
After the catastrophic Christchurch earthquakes of 2010 and 2011, the most damaged areas of the city were abandoned. In these areas, wild nature started to return, with widespread regeneration of woody plants.
To better understand the composition of this vegetation, and what the city would have become without people, we collected soil from 78 abandoned properties in the residential red zone in eastern Christchurch, between September 2013 and February 2014.
From each property, Glenn Stewart and Mira Tripathi collected three soil samples 15 cm x 15 cm wide x 9 cm deep from under the tallest tree(s) on each property. The three samples from each property were mixed together and laid out on a tray and left in the Lincoln University glasshouses.
Glenn, Mira, and Jon Sullivan noted down all woody seedlings that germinated over the next two years. We collect together all these observations here.
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Christchurch post-earthquake red zone seed bank study
jon_sullivan
created this project on September 7, 2016
