Historical broad scale habitat mapping of Moutere Inlet (1947, 1988 and 2004) Technical Report
- Author
- Clark, K.; Gillespie, P.
- Year
- 2007
- Journal / Source
- Cawthron Report
- Publisher / Organisation
- Cawthron Institute
- Number
- 1234
- Pages
- 19
- Keywords
- Moutere Inlet, Tasman,
- Summary
- Prepared for Tasman District Council Broad scale habitat maps of the Moutere Inlet were created based on historical photographs from 1947 and 1988. These maps were compared to a recent habitat map of the Moutere Inlet based on 2004 photographs and ground-truthing of habitat features in the field (see Clark et al. 2006). Several differences in estuary habitats can be seen: • The total area of Moutere Inlet decreased by over 40 ha, or 5.5%, between 1947 and 2004. • The area of unvegetated substrate (including water) in the Inlet has increased over time from 81% of the area (651 ha) in 1947 to 89% (677 ha) in 2004. • This increase has resulted from reductions in the areas of rushland (82.3 ha in 1947 to 42.6 ha in 2004), herbfield (52.4 ha in 1947 to 29.1 ha in 2004) and estuarine shrubs (14.6 ha in 1947 to 3.0 ha in 2004). • New roading (SH 60) along the western side of the estuary has created several embayments, restricting flow to these areas of the estuary. Substantial loss of peripheral vegetated habitat and localised restriction in flushing efficiency has occurred in Moutere Inlet during the period 1947-2004. However we can probably assume that considerably greater changes occurred prior to 1947. This alteration in physical and biological structure, relating to human activities (primarily roading and other shoreline development), is cumulative and is likely to have resulted in significant modification of ecosystem function. Partial recovery of estuarine function could be achieved by road bridging and/or culvert installation in conjunction with saltmarsh revegetation.