This study is an interdisciplinary ecological study addressing the fine-scale relationships between plants, invertebrates and the environment in an alpine ecosystem. Alpine environments are marked by steep environmental gradients and complex habitat mosaics at various spatial scales. Regular forming periglacial patterned ground landforms on the Old Man Range, Central Otago, South Island, New Zealand present an ideal medium for studying plant-invertebrate-environment relationships due to their partitioning of the landscape into discrete units of contrasting environmental conditions, and the existence of some baseline knowledge of the soil, microclimate, vegetation and flora. The study was conducted in three types of patterned ground (hummocks, stripes and solifluction terraces) on the Old Man Range. Each component of the study was sampled at the same spatial scale for comparison. Temperature was recorded in the soil and ground surface from April 2001 to March 2004 in microtopographic subunits (microsites) of each patterned ground landform. Plant species cover was sampled within each microsite; invertebrates were sampled from soil cores taken from the same locations as plant samples in April 2001 and September 2001. The two sampling occasions coincided with autumn before the soil freezes, and winter when maximum freezing was expected. Fine-scale changes in the topographic relief of the patterned ground led to notable differences in the timing and duration of snow. The steepest environmental gradients existed during periods of uneven snow distribution. The soil in exposed or south-facing microsites froze first, beginning in May, and typically froze to more than 40cm depth. Least exposed microsites rarely froze. Within the microtopography, patterns of freezing at specific locations were consistent between years with only minor differences in the timing or depths of freezing; however, notable variation in freezing existed between similar microsites. Within the microtopography, different assemblages of organisms were associated with different microsites. In total, 84 plant and lichen species were recorded, grouping into six community types. Species composition was best explained by growing degree-days, freeze-thaw cycles, time frozen and snow-free days; species diversity and richness increased with increasing environmental stress as indicated by freeze-thaw cycles, time frozen and exposure. In total 20,494 invertebrates, representing four Phyla, 12 Classes, 23 Orders and 295 morpho-taxa were collected from 0.17m� of soil. Acari, Collembola and Pseudococcidae were the most abundant invertebrates. Over 95% of the invertebrates were found in the plant material and first 10cm depth of soil. Few significant relationships were found between diversity, richness or abundance of invertebrate taxa and the microsites; however, multivariate analyses identified distinct invertebrate assemblages based on abundance. Invertebrate composition was best explained by recent low temperature and moisture, particularly in winter; however, plant composition also explained invertebrate composition, but more so in autumn. This research has shown that organisms in the alpine environment of the Old Man Range are sensitive to fine-scale changes in their environment. These results have implications as to how historical changes to the ecosystem may have had long-lasting influences on the biota, as well as how a currently changing climate may have further impacts on the composition and distribution of organisms.

This study is an interdisciplinary ecological study addressing the fine-scale relationships between plants, invertebrates and the environment in an alpine ecosystem. Alpine environments are marked by steep environmental gradients and complex habitat mosaics at various spatial scales. Regular forming periglacial patterned ground landforms on the Old Man Range, Central Otago, South Island, New Zealand present an ideal medium for studying plant-invertebrate-environment relationships due to their partitioning of the landscape into discrete units of contrasting environmental conditions, and the existence of some baseline knowledge of the soil, microclimate, vegetation and flora. The study was conducted in three types of patterned ground (hummocks, stripes and solifluction terraces) on the Old Man Range. Each component of the study was sampled at the same spatial scale for comparison. Temperature was recorded in the soil and ground surface from April 2001 to March 2004 in microtopographic subunits (microsites) of each patterned ground landform. Plant species cover was sampled within each microsite; invertebrates were sampled from soil cores taken from the same locations as plant samples in April 2001 and September 2001. The two sampling occasions coincided with autumn before the soil freezes, and winter when maximum freezing was expected. Fine-scale changes in the topographic relief of the patterned ground led to notable differences in the timing and duration of snow. The steepest environmental gradients existed during periods of uneven snow distribution. The soil in exposed or south-facing microsites froze first, beginning in May, and typically froze to more than 40cm depth. Least exposed microsites rarely froze. Within the microtopography, patterns of freezing at specific locations were consistent between years with only minor differences in the timing or depths of freezing; however, notable variation in freezing existed between similar microsites. Within the microtopography, different assemblages of organisms were associated with different microsites. In total, 84 plant and lichen species were recorded, grouping into six community types. Species composition was best explained by growing degree-days, freeze-thaw cycles, time frozen and snow-free days; species diversity and richness increased with increasing environmental stress as indicated by freeze-thaw cycles, time frozen and exposure. In total 20,494 invertebrates, representing four Phyla, 12 Classes, 23 Orders and 295 morpho-taxa were collected from 0.17m� of soil. Acari, Collembola and Pseudococcidae were the most abundant invertebrates. Over 95% of the invertebrates were found in the plant material and first 10cm depth of soil. Few significant relationships were found between diversity, richness or abundance of invertebrate taxa and the microsites; however, multivariate analyses identified distinct invertebrate assemblages based on abundance. Invertebrate composition was best explained by recent low temperature and moisture, particularly in winter; however, plant composition also explained invertebrate composition, but more so in autumn. This research has shown that organisms in the alpine environment of the Old Man Range are sensitive to fine-scale changes in their environment. These results have implications as to how historical changes to the ecosystem may have had long-lasting influences on the biota, as well as how a currently changing climate may have further impacts on the composition and distribution of organisms.

Outdoor recreation and heritage resources have the potential to provide a wide range of benefits to individuals, groups of individuals and the economy. An increased knowledge of these benefits can give recreation managers and planners a better understanding of how their actions and decisions regarding a resource may impact upon the visitors and communities that they serve. Placed within a climate of increasing public sector accountability, this information might also prove useful in justifying the allocation of scarce resources to recreation and heritage preservation. Justifying the value that recreation adds to society is an issue recognised by Benefits Based Management (BBM), a recreation management and planning framework that seeks to identify and target the positive outcomes realised by individuals, groups, local businesses and communities that result from participation in recreation and leisure. To date, recreation planners and managers have not been presented with a BBM research effort that seeks to describe and understand the visitor and community benefits associated with a rail to trail conversion. This study aimed to identify and describe benefits gained by visitors and neighbouring communities, with specific reference to the Otago Central Rail Trail (OCRT), Central Otago, New Zealand. Information was gathered from seventy-seven semi-structured interviews with visiting users of the OCRT, residents of neighbouring communities and trail managers. The results of the study indicated that community stakeholders reported benefits such as local economic development linked to visitor expenditure, heightened sense of community identity and solidarity and social contact with people from outside the local area. An additional finding was that the perceived benefits of the OCRT have reportedly had a positive influence on local people's attitudes towards the rail trail. Visitor interviews revealed that personal and social well-being benefits such as physical activity, aesthetic appreciation, sense of achievement, psychological refreshment, family togetherness and social interaction with friends and local people were outcomes of an OCRT visit. Reported visitor benefits were further linked to physical fitness and health, enhanced mood and positive mental state, leading a balanced lifestyle and stronger relationships within families and between friends. Visitors also perceived that an OCRT visit had forged a greater knowledge and awareness of railway heritage through gaining insight into railway and Central Otago history and appreciation of the engineering skills and craftsmanship associated with 19th century railway construction. Following the benefit chain of causality (Driver, 1994; Driver & Bruns, 1999; McIntosh, 1999), interview responses were linked to potential community and visitor benefits that could be realised off-site such as enhanced quality of life, community satisfaction and a greater connection with and appreciation of New Zealand's historic and cultural heritage.

‘Rural restructuring’ has frequently been used to indicate the magnitude, and conceptualise the nature, of contemporary change in the countryside. Most notably, concern has focused upon the fundamental changes in economic and social organisation brought about by the increasing leverage of consumption-based activity as a path to rural development. By drawing on the relevant literature, however, I suggest in this thesis that the use of ‘rural restructuring’ as a conceptual framework has been inconsistent. The issue of scale is a case in point with scholars positioning their studies of rural change at varying levels of analysis. In response, I adopt Massey’s (2004) arguments about space and place to present an alternative model which considers ‘rural restructuring’ as a multi-scalar and mutually constitutive process. To explore the feasibility of approaching ‘rural restructuring’ in this way, the thesis focuses, in particular, upon the development of rural tourism at five different scales. These comprise the national scale (New Zealand), the regional scale (Central Otago), the sub-regional scale (the Otago Central Rail Trail), the business scale (five business case studies) and the individual scale (five entrepreneurial case studies). Reflecting the exploratory nature of the study and its multi-scalar approach, I use a number of qualitative research methods. These include interrogating the promotion of New Zealand and Central Otago as tourist destinations, cycling along the Otago Central Rail Trail, staying at accommodation businesses along the Rail Trail, and interviewing individual entrepreneurs about their experiences of business development. The analytical chapters of the thesis comprise an in-depth look at the promotion or experience of rural tourism development at each scale of analysis. Through identifying inter-scale consistencies and emphasising the reciprocal basis of such consistency, I present ‘rural restructuring’ as a multi-scalar and mutually constitutive process. Thus, I connect the national-scale targeting of the ‘interactive traveller’ to the promotion of Central Otago as a ‘World of Discovery’, before linking the development of the Otago Central Rail Trail to its regional context. I then investigate the nature of business development as intimately bound to the evolution of the Rail Trail, before finally tying these entrepreneurial creations to individual accounts of exhaustion and enjoyment that emerge from the operation of tourism businesses. The thesis ends by concluding that ‘rural restructuring’ can indeed be considered a multi-scalar and mutually constitutive process, worked out simultaneously at wide-ranging but interconnected levels of change.

This project has sought to answer the question 'How is landscape made?’ by examining the landscape of the Otago Peninsula on the east coast of the South Island of Aotearoa/New Zealand. By taking a social constructionist approach, an in depth case study has been completed using ethnographic methods combined with discourse analysis. The theoretical framework adopted led to the research question being refined and divided into two parts. The first seeks to determine the discourses that construct the landscape of the Otago Peninsula. Those identified include discourses of Mana Whenua, agriculture, environmentalism, gardening, heritage, neo-liberalism and the picturesque. These discourses interact and resist one another through networks of power. Thus the second part of the research question seeks to understand these networks and the distributions of power through them. The agricultural discourse is the most powerful, albeit under strong challenge from the environmental discourse and from the impacts of neo-liberalism. Mana Whenua discourses have gained significant power in recent decades, but their influence is tenuous. The picturesque discourse has significant power and has been utilised as a key tool in District planning in the area. Thus, the landscape is seen to be made by the dynamic interactions of discourses. This has two consequences, the first, an emphasising of the dynamism of the landscape - it is a process which is under constant flux as a consequence of both the human interactions with and within it, and the biophysical processes which continue outside of human ken. The second consequence is to stress that the landscape is not a unitary object and that this needs to be recognised in the formulation of policy and landscape management.