Freshwater

NIWA has developed a rapid, desktop model which assesses the potential impact of introducing new fish species to New Zealand. The model is customised to New Zealand's unique environment and endemic fish.

Developing techniques for protecting, enhancing and rehabilitating the biodiversity of freshwater ecosystems and the cultural value they provide.

Reducing the risk of new freshwater invasive species, minimising the impacts of these species, and developing methods for reducing or eradicating those populations.

Understanding and predicting the connections between catchments and estuaries to improve the management of diffuse-source contamination.

Understanding and predicting the sources of contaminants, developing technologies to clean up the sources, and understanding the consequences of water quality degradation for aquatic ecosystems and human use of waterways.

This programme is focussed on understanding the effects of human use of surface and groundwater systems to inform more sustainable water allocation decisions that benefit ecosystems and communities.

How much water is in our rivers and groundwater aquifers, how has that has changed over time and how might it change in the future?

NIWA's Freshwater Centre organises its work around seven research programmes.
See the following pages to find out more about our research.

The seaweed known colloquially as nori in Japanese - used for making sushi - or karengo in Maori has been reclassified by an international team of scientists including NIWA's Dr Wendy Nelson.

New Zealand's geographic isolation and relatively recent colonization provide the opportunity for a unique genetic analysis of plant movement patterns to be explored.

Estuaries in New Zealand are experiencing sedimentation at higher rates than before humans arrived here: this represents a loss both for land and estuary productivity. We need to better understand what has been happening so that we can predict the future and fight these losses.