With 75% of New Zealanders living within 10 km of the coast, many students will be familiar with estuaries. In scientific terms, estuaries are the interface between the land and the sea – the ...
Feeding relationships are often shown as simple food chains – in reality, these relationships are much more complex, and the term ‘food web’ more accurately shows the links between producers ...
Explore this interactive diagram to learn more about life in the sea. Click on the different labels to view short video clips or images about different parts of the marine ecosystem.
Throughout human existence we have relied on the oceans – for food, as a waste dump, for recreation, for economic opportunities and so on. However, it’s not only our activities in the marine ...
Estuaries connect land and sea. They are partly enclosed bodies of water situated at the edge of the land – a mixture of freshwater from streams and rivers and saltwater from the sea. Estuaries ...
On land, the most important environmental conditions affecting organisms are rainfall and temperature. In our oceans, there are a number of environmental conditions that affect the growth ...
Estuaries are extremely valuable. They: are nurseries – breeding grounds for fish and birds maintain the health of coastal fisheries and waters are a buffer between land and sea – protecting the ...
Estuaries have a life cycle. They form, they age as they infill with sediment and they transform to other environments, such as freshwater marshes. They are fragile habitats vulnerable to time ...
People like to live near estuaries. In pre-European times, estuaries were favourite places for Māori to gather – particularly to harvest and enjoy kaimoana. Today, there are major settlements ...
Cockles are classified as bivalves within the phylum Mollusca. (Almost all shelled marine animals, as well as octopus and squid, are molluscs.) The New Zealand cockle, also known as tuaki or ...
A habitat is the area where an organism or group of organisms live and breed. One habitat will be distinct from another due to its particular environmental conditions. However, habitats are not ...
Mussels are filter feeders. They draw in seawater and filter out phytoplankton and sediments, cleaning the water as they go. This 25-second video is a before and after display of murky seawater ...
The rocky shore is a popular topic in primary school science. Below are some Science Learning Hub resources for primary teachers related to the rocky shore in the Living World strand of the New ...
In this video, Associate Professor Stephen Wing, from the University of Otago, talks about how our understanding of food webs has changed over the years. We now have a much better understanding ...
Human actions at sea and on land are putting increasing pressure on the ocean and the species that live there.
NIWA's Maori development officer, Apanui Skipper and Weno Iti, the Te Kūwaha manager (NIWA Māori Development Centre), describe what kaitiakitanga means to them.
Our oceans are absorbing about one-third of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. As a result, they are becoming more acidic. Associate Professor Abby Smith, from the University of Otago, is ...
iNaturalist logs hundreds of thousands of photos of flora, fauna and fungi. There are even sound recordings too. Each is described and geo located. iNaturalist is used by citizens and scientists ...
New Zealand is surrounded by the sea, and scientists estimate that as much as 80% of our known species are found in the seas around New Zealand. This marine environment not only provides a ...
Any group of living and non-living things interacting with each other can be considered as an ecosystem. Within ecosystems are habitats. A habitat is the natural environment in which an organism ...
As New Zealanders looking to the future, we are faced with many opportunities – and challenges. These include improving the health of all our people, advancing our economic growth, protecting our ...
Wetlands are ‘in between’ areas – they are permanently or intermittently wet areas on the margins of drier land or along the margins of water bodies like lakes, rivers or the sea. The wet ...
Marine Metre Squared is a New Zealand citizen science project that supports communities to monitor their local seashore. The project has been designed to provide meaningful, valid environmental ...
The sea is our taonga. Our connections to it are strong. More than 75% of New Zealanders live within 10 km of the coast, and the sea is an important part of our Kiwi lifestyle – whether we use it ...
