Atmospheric analysis

Alice is an instrument package for measuring bottom-boundary-layer processes in estuaries and the ocean. It consists of a self-ballasted tripod upon which is mounted a "core" sensor package for measuring boundary-layer currents, turbulence and waves. Alice is principally rigged for sediment-transport studies (with optical and acoustic backscatter sensors, sediment traps and a pump sampler) but has also been used extensively in studies of boundary-layer mechanics, animal–flow–sediment interactions, wave dynamics and nutrient/gas fluxes.

Where an online version is not available, a PDF is provided. Use your browser’s Back button to return to this page.
Bell, R.; Green, M.; Hume, T.; Gorman, R. (2000). What regulates sedimentation in estuaries? Water & Atmosphere 8(4): 13–16.
Davies-Colley, R.; Nagels, J.; Donnison, A.; Muirhead, R. (2004). Flood flushing of bugs in agricultural streams. Water & Atmosphere 12(2): 18–20.
Green, M. (2003.) The dance of the turbid fringe. Water & Atmosphere 11(2): 20–21.
Green, M.; Ellis, J.; Schwarz, A.-M.; Lind, D.; Bluck, B. (2003).

The Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) dictates how we are to manage our physical environment, including the coast and estuaries.

A model is a representation of a “real thing”. Usually, the model is simpler in some or many ways than the real thing; the model simulates the behaviour of the real thing; and the model can be used to predict the future behaviour of the real thing.

Monitoring is often an expensive exercise, but it does not have to be.

Estuaries are more than just the mudflats that we cross on the way to the beach. Of course they have intrinsic value – what natural environment doesn’t? – but they also provide us humans with a range of ecological services that help to sustain the quality of our environment, and with amenities that we all enjoy, and sometimes profit from.

Over the past decade, NIWA has published many popular articles that deal with estuaries - this overview is intended to bring together and make whole sense of the information published to date in the various popular articles.

An estuary is a semi-enclosed embayment, with a free connection to the sea at one end and a freshwater supply at the other, and within which fresh and salty waters mix.

Salmon, Trout and Char (Salmonidae) The Salmonidae family is native to the Northern Hemisphere, but several species have been introduced to New Zealand. Some of these species, particularly brown and rainbow trout, have established very successfully here and support New Zealand’s reputation as an angling Eldorado.

Other live bearers (Phallocerus caudimaculatus, Poecilia latipinna, P. reticulata, Xiphophorus helleri) In addition to mosquitofish, there are four other species of Poeciliidae in New Zealand. As all of these have a very restricted distribution, they have been combined for this discussion. They are all popular aquarium species (who has not heard of the guppy) and probably came to be released by aquarists either tired of looking after their fish or eager to establish feral populations in New Zealand.

LIVE BEARERS (Poeciliidae) As the common name of this family implies, the Poeciliidae are characterised by giving birth to live young. Other family characteristics include a single soft-rayed dorsal fin and no lateral line. On male poeciliids, the anal fin has evolved into a structure known as a gonopodium that is used to transfer sperm bundles to the female fish.

Mackinaw (Salvelinus namaycush)
This member of the Salmonidae family occurs naturally throughout the north of the United States and in Canada and Alaska. A single importation of eggs occurred in 1906, and these fish were destined for Lake Kaniere on the west coast. However, when their transport ran into difficulties crossing Arthurs Pass, the fish were dumped into Lakes Grasmere and Pearson in the Waimakariri River catchment.