Freshwater

Estuaries are coastal waterbodies where freshwater mixes with seawater. Many estuaries in Aotearoa New Zealand have been impacted by pollutants and contaminants entering via freshwater.

New Zealand has just over 50 native freshwater fish species. Of these, 85 % are endemic and 75 % are deemed to be at risk of decline or are threatened.

Our highest elevation site at 2128 m, Mt Potts is also one our sites very exposed to wind.

The Upper Rakaia SIN site is located at 1752 m on a north facing slope in the Jollie Range. Records start in 2010.

The Albert Burn SIN site is located at 1280 m in the upper Albert Burn valley, east of Mt Aspiring/Tititea. Records start in 2012.

The Ivory Glacier SIN site is located at 1390 m next to Ivory Lake, west of the main divide of the Southern Alps/ Kā Tiritiri Te Moana.

A four-year research programme focused on the co-management and restoration of our freshwater taonga species.

In collaboration with the University of Waikato, the CKS team has also supported five graduate students and three summer research scholarship interns through a variety of practical experiences.

NIWA is asking people in flood-affected areas to contribute photos to a national database to support understanding of flood hazard and flood risk.

This programme developed approaches to enable the recognition and prioritisation of cultural keystone species (CKS) in co-management, restoration and monitoring to help sustain the social, economic and ecological health and wellbeing of Aotearoa-New Zealand’s freshwater ecosystems.

Within the Cultural Keystones Species programme (CKS) new ways to communicate the state and trends of taonga populations have been designed to meet the needs of our partners and to deliver tools and knowledge that support the protection and restoration of freshwater taonga species.