Oceans

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

Icebergs approach New Zealand’s sub-Antarctic islands every few years.

NIWA has developed an Urban Stormwater Contaminant (USC) model to enable urban planners to predict sedimentation and heavy metal accumulation in estuaries and identify problem areas in order to target mitigation measures.

Different groups of organisms need trained specialists (taxonomists) to distinguish a new species from one that is already named and scientifically described

Multibeam echo sounders emit a fan of sound beams to the seafloor to scan a wide swath of the seabed in great detail. 

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.

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.