Journal Articles

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/7915

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Author: search.filters.author.Joy MK

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    Nutrient criteria to achieve New Zealand's riverine macroinvertebrate targets
    (PeerJ, Inc, 2021) Canning AD; Joy MK; Death RG; Brauns M
    Waterways worldwide are experiencing nutrient enrichment from population growth and intensive agriculture, and New Zealand is part of this global trend. Increasing fertilizer in New Zealand and intensive agriculture have driven substantial water quality declines over recent decades. A recent national directive has set environmental managers a range of riverine ecological targets, including three macroinvertebrate indicators, and requires nutrient criteria be set to support their achievement. To support these national aspirations, we use the minimization-of-mismatch analysis to derive potential nutrient criteria. Given that nutrient and macroinvertebrate monitoring often does not occur at the same sites, we compared nutrient criteria derived at sites where macroinvertebrates and nutrients are monitored concurrently with nutrient criteria derived at all macroinvertebrate monitoring sites and using modelled nutrients. To support all three macroinvertebrate targets, we suggest that suitable nutrient criteria would set median dissolved inorganic nitrogen concentrations at ~0.6 mg/L and median dissolved reactive phosphorus concentrations at ~0.02 mg/L. We recognize that deriving site-specific nutrient criteria requires the balancing of multiple values and consideration of multiple targets, and anticipate that criteria derived here will help and support these environmental goals.
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    Protecting the future of New Zealand’s freshwater ecosystems
    (Society for Conservation Biology (Oceania), Sydney, 1/09/2014) Weeks E; Kingsford RT; Taylor A; Joy MK
    Freshwater is New Zealand’s greatest asset and is a taonga of paramount importance. It is valued for its contribution to biodiversity, recreation, the economy and overall well - being of New Zealanders. New Zealand’s rivers, lakes, wetlands and groundwater support a unique array of flora and fauna. They are also a vital element of whakapapa and provide valuable resources such as mahinga kai, and underpin the country’s ever - growing tourism industry. Reinforcing this importance, New Zealanders consider water quality to be the most important environmental challenge facing New Zealand. This Conservation Science Statement uses the latest scientific understanding of New Zealand’s unique freshwater ecosystems to propose approaches to policy and management that safeguard these resources for future generations. We identify six clear priorities to protect New Zealand’s freshwater ecosystems: 1. address the cumulative impacts of land use change and resulting diffuse pollution of rivers and streams ; 2. build capacity to sustainably manage freshwater ecosystems at the regional level ; 3. support whole farm environmental management to control water quality impacts ; 4. develop a management agenda for wetlands and groundwater ecosystems ; 5. enhance the understanding of the ecological requirements to sustain native fish habitat through Department of Conservation, the Land and Water Forum site and other agencies and; 6. identify impacts of increased allocation on surface and ground water ecosystems and synergies with declining water quality.