NIWA

Ecosystems

Latest news

Tubeworm discovery in Hauraki Gulf cause for celebration

19 March 2020

Scientists mapping the Hauraki Gulf seafloor have discovered huge colonies of tubeworms up to 1.5 metres high and collectively covering hundreds of metres providing vital habitats for plants and animals.

Fish snack on microplastics

Media Release

22 October 2019

Microplastics are being fed to snapper, New Zealand’s most popular recreational fish species, at NIWA’s aquaculture research facility near Whangarei in a bid to establish some baseline data about how fish are being affected.

NIWA scientist throws light on the Red Zone

Feature story

21 December 2018

Christchurch’s Red Zone is to be the focal point of a scientific experiment involving street lights and insects over summer. 

Kaikōura Canyon shows early signs of ecosystem recovery

Media Release

19 September 2017

NIWA scientists have found signs of recovery in the Kaikōura Canyon seabed, 10 months after powerful submarine landslides triggered by the November earthquake wiped out organisms living in and on the seabed.

Our work

IPBES Nature Futures Workshop

NIWA hosted an IPBES workshop entitled “Visions for nature and nature’s contributions to people for the 21st century” held from 4-8 September 2017 in Auckland.

Restoration of seagrass beds in Whangarei Harbour

Seagrass beds form an important undersea habitat for small fish, seahorses and shellfish in New Zealand.

Plankton biodiversity in the Southern Ocean

NIWA is conducting a five–year study to map changes in the distribution of plankton species in surface waters between New Zealand and the Ross Sea.

Effects of ocean acidification on plankton in New Zealand waters

Our oceans are expected to become more acidic as carbon dioxide concentrations rise. This will likely have impacts on the plankton, which play a major role in ocean ecosystems and processes.

Latest videos

Taking the pulse of Antarctica’s ocean ecosystem

Niwa scientists have anchored an echosounder to the sea floor of Terra Nova Bay that could reveal the mystery of silverfish reproduction under the Antarctic ice.

Southern Blue Whiting Fishery

NIWA fisheries scientist Dr Stuart Hanchet describes the history and management of the southern blue whiting fishery, centred around New Zealand's subantarctic islands.

Kaikoura Canyon Seabed Life

The video represents a number of clips that have been spliced together to illustrate the abundant life associated with the muddy seabed sediments in Kaikoura Canyon at 1000m.

Restoration of aquatic ecosystems

This project aims to increase our knowledge of aquatic ecosystems and their restoration, and apply this to degraded streams, rivers, lakes and estuaries.

Tubeworm discovery in Hauraki Gulf cause for celebration

Media Release

19 March 2020

Fish snack on microplastics

Media Release

22 October 2019

Freshwater Update 81, June 2019

Freshwater Update 81 brings you the latest information from our Freshwater & Estuaries Centre, with articles ranging from how NIWA scientists are solving the longfin eel migration mystery, how we're taking you diving with us at Fieldays, and a word from one of the editors of the new Lakes Restoration Handbook.

NIWA scientist throws light on the Red Zone

Feature story

21 December 2018

Christchurch’s Red Zone is to be the focal point of a scientific experiment involving street lights and insects over summer. 

NASA and New Zealand researchers partner for environmental project

New Zealand and NASA have partnered for their first international space mission, aiming to help protect the world's vulnerable ecosystems.

New NPS-FM periphyton guidance released by Ministry for the Environment

A technical guide to the Periphyton Attribute Note under the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPS-FM) 2014 (as amended 2017) has been released, as a draft, this month by the Ministry for the Environment.

Taking a look at aquatic life below ground

A seminal review has just been completed. It describes aquatic life within aquifers, outlines the ecosystem services and values supported by groundwater ecosystems, and discusses the key factors that affect and threaten groundwater ecosystems.

Aquatic plant scientists visit Queenstown

The 15th International Symposium on Aquatic Plants was held in Quenstown in February 2018, bringing together scientists from 20 different countries to share their latest research, promote debate, discussion and collaboration.

IPBES Nature Futures Workshop

NIWA hosted an IPBES workshop entitled “Visions for nature and nature’s contributions to people for the 21st century” held from 4-8 September 2017 in Auckland.

Atlantis ecosystem model

Atlantis is a 3D, spatially-explicit, trophodynamic ecosystem model that integrates biology, physics, chemistry and human impacts to provide a synoptic view of marine ecosystem function.

Machine learning ecosystem models

Unlike other ecosystem models, machine learning is built solely from the information it is presented.

Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE)

Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) is trophodynamic modelling software that uses a mass-balance approach to describe ecosystem based, marine food web interactions.

Spatially explicit disturbance/recovery models

Spatially explicit disturbance/recovery models are a cellular automaton that uses a mechanistic approach to investigate recovery rates of benthic species following disturbance events.

Resource trade-off models

Resource trade-off models are spatial models that use biological, environmental and socio-economic data to optimise management (protected area designation) across potentially conflicting uses, or across different ecosystem services.

MICE model of predator-prey interactions in fisheries stock assessment

MICE (Models of Intermediate Complexity) is a type of ecosystem model that is question-driven, and contains a limited number of components and ecological processes.

ROMS coupled physical-biologeochemical modelling

These models can look at the movement of carbon into the water, through the food chain, and then the export to the lower depths of the ocean.

Ecosystem Modelling at NIWA

At NIWA, we consider all components of the marine ecosystem important when trying to better understand the role of dynamic, ecosystem processes on the distribution and abundance of marine organisms in New Zealand’s marine environments.

Kaikōura Canyon shows early signs of ecosystem recovery

Media Release

19 September 2017

Sustaining the sea

Feature story

22 February 2017

We examine how the Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge plans to enhance the use of marine resources within biological constraints.

Important submarine canyon ecosystems at risk

3 February 2017

A NIWA scientist is calling for greater protection of submarine canyons around New Zealand as their rich marine life comes under increasing threat from human activity.

Scientists probe complex causes of New Zealand sea lion decline

Media Release

8 July 2015

A tiny community of New Zealand sea lions on the Otago Peninsula is helping scientists solve the mystery of why some populations are doing better than others.