Flooding and sea level rise are hurting our estuaries and coasts stuff.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stuff.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Auckland estuaries near ecological tipping points , study suggests stuff.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stuff.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Estuaries are where freshwater rivers meet the ocean, and where people live and visit.
The estuaries dotted along New Zealand’s coastline provide many economic and recreational opportunities like swimming, boating, sightseeing and collecting kaimoana.
Team leader of marine science and aquaculture professor Conrad Pilditch is supervising the research along with Professor Karin Bryan, Associate Professor Kura Paul-Burke, Dr Joanne Ellis and Dr Shari Gallop.
“Estuaries are fascinating places to study scientifically because they are so complicated,” says Professor Pilditch.
“There are a lot of different habitats and different things happening.”
But they are also difficult to manage.
“Because estuaries lie between the interface of the coast and the sea, they gain pressures from both areas, but they also slip between the gap of marine and freshwater management.