The environment of New Zealand is characterised by unique flora and fauna and a variety of landforms contained within a small island nation. Historically having an isolated and endemic ecosystem far into modernity, the arrival of Polynesians about 1280 and then later European settlers began to have significant impacts on this system, with the intentional and unintentional introduction of new species and plants which often overwhelmed their natural competitors, leading to a significant loss of native ecology and biodiversity, especially in areas such as bird life.