Freshwater Update 70, August 2016

Water resources are important to New Zealand’s economy and electricity supply and we are fortunate to receive as much precipitation as we do. Compared with many other countries New Zealand is relative water-rich. But this abundance varies from year to year, month to month, and region to region, leaving some places with too much at times (flooding) or with too little (drought).

“Citizen science” is a buzz word in environment and conservation circles these days. New technologies and increasing concern about the state of our environment are coming together, and more members of the public are getting out there to monitor everything from snowfall to shifts in species distributions. With freshwater quality still the number one environmental issue of public concern in New Zealand, it is not surprising that stream monitoring is a growing area for citizen science.

Freshwater invertebrates vary in their sensitivity to different environmental stressors. This means that the community of invertebrates living in a waterway can be used to give an indication of the ‘health’ of the system (i.e. “canaries in the cage”).

Eddy covariance network allows NIWA to investigate the role of climate, vegetation and management practices on evaporative water loss from agricultural land-uses.

Evaluations of coastal wetland resilience to rising sea levels must be based on site measurements rather than relying on sea-level trends from off-site tide gauges.

The warming of many lakes globally has been documented by a multi-authored international publication.