Ecological monitoring

The condition of many NZ lakes is under threat from land-use changes and the invasion of alien aquatic plants.

Submerged plants have a number of advantages that favour their use as indicators of lake ecological condition.

This manual prescribes a set of sampling and analysis protocols applicable to most of the common stream habitats in New Zealand.

A summary of the LakeSPI method.

LakeSPI delivers information that is directly applicable to lake-ecosystem conservation and management.

LakeSPI can be used in many ways depending on what the interests or management needs are for a lake.

LakeSPI (Lake Submerged Plant Indicators) is based on the principle that New Zealand lakes can be characterised by the composition of native and invasive plants growing in them, and the depths to which these plants grow.

These guidelines outline a recommended minimum set of methods for a community group interested in following habitat changes in an estuary.

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.