Aquatic Environment and Biodiversity Annual Review 2012

AEBAR 2012: Appendices: Past projects
BIODIVERSITY continued
Project Code Project Title Specific Objectives Status Citation/s
ZBD2004-05 Assessment and definition
of the biodiversity of
coralline algae of northern
New Zealand
ZBD2004-10 Development of
bioindicators in coastal
ecosystems
ZBD2004-19 Ecological function and
critical trophic linkages in
New Zealand softsediment
habitats
ZBD2003-02 Biodiversity of Coastal
Benthic Communities of
the North Western Ross
Sea.
ZBD2003-03 Biodiversity of deepwater
invertebrates and fish
communities of the north
western Ross Sea
1. To assess and define the biodiversity of coralline algae in northern New
Zealand.
2. To develop rapid identification tools for coralline algae using molecular
sequencing data.
3. To contribute representative material to the national Coralline Algal
Collections.
4. To produce ID guides to common coralline algae of northern New Zealand.
1. Investigate linkages between land use patterns in catchments and nitrogen
loading to recipient
estuaries and coastal ecosystems
2. Characterise isotopic signatures of selected bioindicator organisms in relation
to different
terrestrial nutrient loads; and
3. Validate the use of bioindicators using controlled laboratory and field
experiments.
1. Define the interactive effects of two functionally important benthic species in
maintaining critical trophic linkages in soft-sediment systems from a series of
integrated field experiments.
2. Quantify effects of heart urchins (Echinocardium australe) on sediment
properties- benthic primary production- and macrofaunal diversity through
manipulative field experiments in Mahurangi Harbour.
3. Test for interactions between pinnid bivalves (Atrina zelandica) and heart
urchins (Echinocardium australe) in field experiments- and measure their
respective and combined contributions to sediment properties- benthic primary
production- and macrofau na
4. Determine the dependence of results from objectives 1 and 2 (functional
contributions of Echinocardium and Atrina) in an environmental context by
conducting experiments along an estuarine-coastal gradient.
1. Quantify patterns in biodiversity and community structure in the coastal Ross
Sea region
2. Quantify biodiversity in benthic communities at selected locations in the Ross
sea north of Terra Nova Bay
3. Describe ecosystem function at selected locations in the Ross Sea north of
Terra Nova Bay.
1. To describe, and quantify the diversity of, the benthic macroinvertebrates and
fish assemblages of the Balleny Islands and adjacent seamounts, and to
determine the importance of certain environmental variables influencing
assemblage composition.
370
Completed Farr et al. 2009
Completed Savage 2009
Completed Lohrer et al. 2010
Completed Cummings et al. 2003;
2006a; 2010; De Domenico
et al. 2006; Guidetti et al.
2006; Norkko et al. 2004
Completed Rowden et al. 2012a; In
Press; Mitchell & Clark 2004