Freshwater plants are the 'well-kept secret' of New Zealand’s flora, hidden away in remote areas or lurking under the water surface of our lakes and rivers. An ability to discover basic information about plants in waterways is the foundation to solving a spectrum of problems that face our freshwaters today.
NIWA develops specialist survey techniques to detect and delineate aquatic vegetation, ranging from scuba surveys to sonar technology. Submerged plants are excellent ecological indicators, mirroring the condition of water bodies in which they live. NIWA capitalise on this fact to design methods that use plant measures to assess water body condition (LakeSPI). The aquatic plant survey data we collect is available via web-accessible data storage and retrieval systems, so anyone can 'discover' the plant secrets in their water body.
Articles
Design survey techniques
- Submerged plant data: answering the what, where and why
- Sounding out submerged plants
- Strategy for northern lakes (PDF 409 KB)
Develop ecological condition indicator tools
- LakeSPI goes online: lakespi.niwa.co.nz
- About LakeSPI
- LakeSPI user manual and technical report
- Rotorua lakes: plants speak out
- Submerged aquatic plants – indicators of lake trophic status?
Provide web-accessible database
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Trophic table
Trophic preferences and range for submerged plant species in NZ lakes.