Freshwater - News

Science Centres: Freshwater

10 April 2012

NIWA and Environment Southland have recently returned with stunning new footage of undersea sills in Dusky and Doubtful Sounds, brimming with sea life, corals and sponges.

23 March 2012

How far and fast can aquatic insects travel upstream? Do the adults have to fly, or can the larvae crawl? A NIWA scientist is using obstacle courses to test the ability of fly larvae for upstream travel - a kind of flyathalon. This work will identify some of the barriers to stream restoration, including movement of insects as they recolonise restored areas.

5 March 2012

Flying above the New Zealand coastline on cloudless days, you can sometimes see plumes of material-laden river water, much of it containing sediment from land runoff. Understanding where this material ends up will help assess the land use impacts on our vulnerable coastal ecosystems, and guide mitigation measures to reduce those impacts.

20 December 2011

Most of New Zealand's rain doesn't fall in the plains, but in the mountains, particularly the Southern Alps.

19 December 2011

Recent research by NIWA scientists reveal that Blue Lake, in Nelson Lakes National Park, has extreme visual clarity, perhaps only exceeded worldwide by certain ocean waters, such as those in the SE Pacific near Easter Island.

19 December 2011

Wild kai such as eel (tuna), lamprey (kanakana) and whitebait are a significant cultural, recreational and economic resource for Māori in South Canterbury.

2 December 2011

A NIWA scientist has been looking at the effects of shifts in climate on water resources, in water-limited parts of New Zealand. 

22 September 2011

A recent OECD report describes New Zealand's water quality as 'good' relative to most OECD countries but says that it is deteriorating. This deterioration is due, in large part, to diffuse pollution from agriculture, says Dr Kevin Parris of the Trade and Agriculture Directorate, OECD in Paris, France. Dr Parris is a plenary speaker at the DIPCON conference, in Rotorua.

22 September 2011

Scientists are working on new ways of preserving and restoring New Zealand's iconic lakes with experimental trials in Lake Rotoehu.

20 September 2011

Wetlands are like a sponge - they take in large amounts of water and "clean" it by processing out nutrients carried in the water that flows through them. These nutrients can include diffuse pollutants like nitrogen and phosphorous from farm runoff.

19 September 2011

Freshwater experts from around the world kicked off a five-day international conference on diffuse pollution in Rotorua this morning.

12 September 2011

Water pollution is a global problem. The most challenging aspect of water pollution to solve is 'diffuse pollution' such as run-off from land surfaces. Diffuse Pollution is the most important source of pollution in New Zealand.

27 January 2011

NIWA scientists leave for Brisbane this Friday 28 January.

24 December 2010

The Ministry for the Environment has this morning released the Waikato River Independent Scoping Study, which was led by NIWA.

2 December 2010

NIWA and partners have developed a new Envirolink toolkit for monitoring the ecological success of stream restoration.

2 December 2010

NIWA and partners have developed a new Envirolink toolkit for monitoring the ecological success of stream restoration.

11 November 2010

A NIWA report provides a national snapshot of the current status (2005-2009) and long term trends of water quality in New Zealand lakes.

5 November 2010

NIWA’s annual end-of-summer survey of the snowline on key South Island glaciers shows, on average, a very slight net gain in the amount of snow at the top of those glaciers.

20 August 2010

‘Whitebait’ tagged as part of a unique experiment have turned up. Earlier this year the giant kōkopu released into the Nukumea Stream in Orewa had disappeared, but when scientists returned in June the fish were back!

8 December 2009

New Zealand’s iconic whitebait species are disappearing from our waterways, but help could soon be at hand for the threatened giant kōkopu.