Freshwater

Eutrophication occurs when nutrients in streams, rivers, lakes and estuaries cause excessive growth of aquatic plants and algae (primary producers).

These are some recent publications related to the freshwater species ecology and management programme.

NIWA is helping to ensure that New Zealand’s unique and iconic freshwater species are healthy, abundant and thriving.

Constructed wetlands are a water quality restoration tool that can reduce levels of sediment, nutrients and microbes such as E. coli.

For more than 20 years NIWA scientists have been nurturing three plants that are the only examples of their kind in existence.

The Whatawhata Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) Project is the longest continuously monitored before-after-control-impact (BACI) catchment-scale study in New Zealand.

Scientists know so little about how storms affect the delicate balance of lake ecosystems that we may be unable to protect them from the effects of climate change, says a NIWA scientist.

NIWA researchers have helped unlock information trapped in ancient air samples from Greenland and Antarctica that shows the amount of methane humans are emitting into the atmosphere from fossil fuels has been vastly underestimated.

The SHMAK method for rubbish involves collecting and identifying all the rubbish (litter) in the stream and on the stream banks.

The SHMAK visual habitat assessment gives your stream a score that you can use to assess changes over time or compare streams.

Two methods for describing streambed composition: the visual assessment method is quicker while the Wolman walk is more accurate.