Feature story

There are about 800km between the southern and northern tips of Tonga - and a lot of ocean.
In the past 10 years, more weather records have been broken than in any other time in New Zealand’s history.
Just past the locks, alarms and big heavy doors is a rather macabre sight.
A group of microscopic algae that form vast aquamarine blooms off the east coast is the subject of NIWA’s latest Biodiversity Memoir
New Zealanders are fast becoming aware that our changing climate matters a great deal. NIWA Chief Executive John Morgan explains.
While most New Zealanders were settling into their summer break, some scientists were double-checking their survival gear before heading to work deep in the Southern Ocean.

The on-going rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) that is fuelling climate change is also driving significant changes in the waters off our coasts.

At the bottom of our lakes are NIWA divers with waterproof clipboards. Sarah Fraser jumps in to find out what they’re doing.
When fire came to Pigeon Valley, Fire and Emergency came to NIWA.
Dr Sara Mikaloff-Fletcher is looking to turn the internationally accepted science of monitoring greenhouse gas emissions upside down—and the rest of the world is watching closely.
Susan Pepperell reports on a region trying to cope with a changing climate
Demands for new weather and climate predictions are unprecedented as nations struggle to understand their exposure to risk from severe climatic events.
A science-fiction fan, amateur actor, and eternal optimist, is now NIWA’s Chief Scientist for Climate, Atmosphere and Hazards. Susan Pepperell finds out more.
It may be rubbish to everyone else, but to Amanda Valois each little scrap of plastic on a river bank or in a waterway tells a valuable story.
If you think science and art have nothing in common, think again. At environmental science institute NIWA, it’s all about one inspiring the other.
As a young child growing up on an Irish farm, one of Eimear Egan’s chores was to regularly clean out the well from where her family drew its drinking water. In the well lived a large eel that, no matter how many times it was shifted, just kept coming back.
A leopard seal, who has made the balmy waters around Auckland home, is prompting a NIWA scientist to campaign for her to be made a New Zealand citizen.
Based at Bream Bay, Whangarei, Crispin Middleton is also an acclaimed underwater photographer and the recipient of numerous photography awards. His work regularly appears in New Zealand Geographic, dive magazines, scientific journals and conservation/ government documents.
Christchurch’s Red Zone is to be the focal point of a scientific experiment involving street lights and insects over summer. 
A NIWA-led team of marine ecologists are using seal-mounted cameras to get a first-hand view into the behaviour and movements of Weddell seals under the Antarctic ice.
NIWA scientists have made an important breakthrough in the battle to save New Zealand’s freshwater mussels.
Inhabitants of the Marshall Islands may not be able to avoid drought, but thanks to a new tool co-developed by NIWA they can now plan ahead to better manage water resources when the big dry looms.
Research conducted after the 2016, 7.8 magnitude Kaikōura earthquake has provided scientists with an extremely rare opportunity to understand the processes that shape submarine canyons.
NIWA has completed a project that aims to help build community resilience against flooding in the Bumbu River and contribute to improving Papua New Guinea’s disaster preparedness in the face of increasing climate-related disasters.
Coastal communities around New Zealand are getting a say on how to respond to sea-level rise, and NIWA is helping them.

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