Death of a thousand cuts - ecosystem disturbance
Death of a thousand cuts - ecosystem disturbance
Intertidal flats of Mahurangi Harbour. (Photo: Jane Halliday, NIWA)
‘The problem that resource managers face in trying to protect coastal environments is that damage is like death of a thousand cuts – it is often the result of many different small disturbances, the effects of which accumulate over time.’ So says NIWA scientist Simon Thrush, who is leading a long-term project on ecological disturbance modelling at NIWA.
Most environmental threats come in the form of some sort of disturbance to natural ecosystems.