Nutrient management for Northland's dune lakes
- Author
- Kelly DJ, Peacock L, Jiang W
- Year
- 2016
- Journal / Source
- Cawthron Report No. 2796.
- Publisher / Organisation
- Prepared for Northland Regional Council.
- Pages
- 65 pp + appendices
- Summary
- The Northland region has some of the most outstanding examples of coastal dune lakes in New Zealand, with some of the few remaining lowland lakes with high water quality on the North Island. Management of their conservation, recreational and cultural values requires an understanding of their vulnerability to different human-induced pressures, including nutrient load from land uses in their catchments. The implementation of the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2014 (NPS-FM) requires regional authorities to establish and implement limits to protect water quality and ecological values of waterbodies in their region. Land use in coastal areas of Northland includes agriculture and plantation forestry, intermixed with significant areas of native forest and dune scrubland vegetation. The effects of land use can be cyclical, particularly in relation to forest harvest cycles and agricultural rotation. Northland Regional Council (NRC) has initiated measures as part of the development of their new (second-generation) regional plan for the management of water quality in dune lakes. Presently NRC regularly monitor twenty-seven high value lakes for water quality status and trend, as well as ecological health attributes (e.g., lake macrophytes, macroinvertebrates).