Atmospheric analysis

NIWA uses Trimble RTK GPS surveying equipment to undertake precise topographic and bathymetric surveys. These surveys are used to measure beach stability, river bed erosion and deposition, and to make digital terrain models of rivers for 2-dimensional hydrodynamic modelling. 

Mass of Seawater = w(sw) [kg]
Volume of Manometer = Vman [cm3]
Manometer Temperature = T [°C]
Manometer Pressure = Pfinal [Pa]
Pressure transducer zero = Po [Pa]
Universal Gas Constant = R = 8.314 J K-1 mol-1
Virial Co-efficient B(CO2) [cm3 mol-1] B = 1636.75+(12.0408*(T+273.16))-(0.0327957*(T+273.16)2)+(0.0000316528*(T+273.16)3)
Vm(CO2 at manometer T and P) [m3] – calculate iteratively, initial Vm = 0.22264 =R*(T+273.16)/((Pfinal - Po))*(1+(B*0.000001/Vm))
CT

Alice is an instrument package for measuring bottom-boundary-layer processes in estuaries and the ocean. It consists of a self-ballasted tripod upon which is mounted a "core" sensor package for measuring boundary-layer currents, turbulence and waves. Alice is principally rigged for sediment-transport studies (with optical and acoustic backscatter sensors, sediment traps and a pump sampler) but has also been used extensively in studies of boundary-layer mechanics, animal–flow–sediment interactions, wave dynamics and nutrient/gas fluxes.

BEVIS has been developed for rapid, cost-effective seafloor habitat surveys. Sled-borne cameras are monitored and controlled from the surface, affording investigation at depths where using divers to collect video data or macrobenthic cores would be impractical or impossible. 

Our Computerised Research Echo Sounder Technology (CREST) is a highly adaptable approach to fisheries and other acoustic data acquisition.

NIWA's Becton Dickinson FACSCalibur flow cytometer supports a wide range of research and commercial applications.

Where an online version is not available, a PDF is provided. Use your browser’s Back button to return to this page.
Bell, R.; Green, M.; Hume, T.; Gorman, R. (2000). What regulates sedimentation in estuaries? Water & Atmosphere 8(4): 13–16.
Davies-Colley, R.; Nagels, J.; Donnison, A.; Muirhead, R. (2004). Flood flushing of bugs in agricultural streams. Water & Atmosphere 12(2): 18–20.
Green, M. (2003.) The dance of the turbid fringe. Water & Atmosphere 11(2): 20–21.
Green, M.; Ellis, J.; Schwarz, A.-M.; Lind, D.; Bluck, B. (2003).

The Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) dictates how we are to manage our physical environment, including the coast and estuaries.

A model is a representation of a “real thing”. Usually, the model is simpler in some or many ways than the real thing; the model simulates the behaviour of the real thing; and the model can be used to predict the future behaviour of the real thing.

Monitoring is often an expensive exercise, but it does not have to be.

Estuaries are more than just the mudflats that we cross on the way to the beach. Of course they have intrinsic value – what natural environment doesn’t? – but they also provide us humans with a range of ecological services that help to sustain the quality of our environment, and with amenities that we all enjoy, and sometimes profit from.

Over the past decade, NIWA has published many popular articles that deal with estuaries - this overview is intended to bring together and make whole sense of the information published to date in the various popular articles.