Broad scale habitat mapping of sandy beaches and river estuaries on the western Wellington Coast. Technical Report
- Author
- Stevens, L. and Robertson, B.
- Year
- 2006
- Journal / Source
- Report for Greater Wellington Regional Council. Cawthron Report.
- Publisher / Organisation
- Cawthron Institute, Nelson, New Zealand.
- Volume
- 1035
- Keywords
- Beaches, soft substrate, estuaries, estuarine, vegetation, intertidal, vehicle impacts, contaminants, ecological survey
- Summary
- Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) contracted the Cawthron Institute to map the substrate of beaches and river estuaries along the Kapiti coastline (total distance (approx 40 km), as well as Karehana Bay and Plimmerton Beach (approx 4 km), Titahi Bay (approx 1.3 km), and Makara Estuary (approx 7.5Ha). The approach taken used a combination of field-verified broad scale mapping of habitat zones, supported by fine scale sampling at specific locations to provide an indication of the general health of beach and estuarine areas, particularly at the mouths of streams and rivers. This report presents the results of the 2005 sampling programme (grain size, nutrient and organic enrichment, toxic contaminants, sediment biota, environmental pressures). Overall, fine scale measurements of the spatial variation and inter-relationships of a suite of commonly measured physical, chemical and biological indicators in a common low-mid water intertidal habitat showed all of the sites were in a healthy condition. While localised impacts were present, across the majority of the habitat at all of the sites, the intertidal sediment quality of the sites was high.
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