Benthic habitats, macrobenthos, and surficial sediments of the nearshore South Taranaki Bight

Seabed sampling of the nearshore region of the STB was conducted during a 3-day field survey undertaken from the 28th February to the 2nd March 2013. Seabed habitats were characterised at 36 sites (26 nearshore sites and 10 cross-shelf sites), using underwater video footage and still images (photo-quadrats). Representative habitats were then sampled using a benthic grab for surficial sediments and a benthic dredge to collect surficial macrobenthic specimens. Ninety-two percent of the seabed along the nearshore region of the STB was characterised by extensive soft-sediments that supported few macrobenthic organisms. The remaining 8% of the seabed (five sites) comprised hard substratum in the form of either low to moderate relief hard rock (6%) or variable relief mudstone (2%) outcrops. In contrast to mudstone outcrops, which supported low or negligible amounts of macrobenthos, hard rock outcrops supported abundant and diverse assemblages, with the two dredges sampled at Site 5 and 6 accounting for more than 25% of all specimens and 61% of all species collected during the survey.
 
Citation proposal
Alison MacDiarmid (NIWA) - Rob Stewart (NIWA). .
 

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Date ( Creation )
2015-06-08T21:43:00
Date ( Revision )
2015-06-08T21:43:00
Purpose
Trans-Tasman Resources Ltd (TTR) applied for consents for iron sand extraction in the South Taranaki Bight (STB). NIWA’s initial modelling predicted that activities associated with extraction of seabed sediments would produce down-current plumes of suspended sediments and deposition of fine-sediment within the nearshore marine environment directly offshore from the Whanganui River estuary. This has potential to alter water clarity and increase sediment deposition to the seabed with implications for the benthic assemblage, particularly benthic primary production and suspension feeding organisms. As very little was known about the types of habitats and organisms that occur in the nearshore region of the STB, NIWA was contracted by TTR to survey and describe the benthic flora and fauna within this region. 
Credit
Anderson, T.J., MacDiarmid, A. and Stewart, R. 2013. Benthic habitats, macrobenthos and surficial sediments of the nearshore South Taranaki Bight. Prepared for Trans-Tasman Resources Ltd. NIWA Client Report No: NEL2013-012. 44pp. 
Status
Completed  

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Spatial representation type
Vector  
Topic category
  • Biota
  • Environment
  • Oceans
Description
Taranaki Region: Inner-shelf between Hawera and Foxton 
N
S
E
W


TimePeriod
2013-02-282013-03-02 
  • benthic communities, benthic ecology, benthic environment, benthic invertebrates, habitat, underwater video, cores, grain size, dredges, macrofauna, soft-sediments, rocky reefs, dynamic-sediments, continental shelf, TTR11301
NIWA Project Codes
  • TTR11301
Use limitation
1) while some surficial infauna were collected in the epifaunal dredge samples, infaunal surveys were not undertaken. Core samples were collected for sediment grain size but no infauna were collected. 
Other constraints
Confidential client data, for use by NIWA staff only. Permission from client is required for any use of these data. NIWA contact: Alison MacDiarmid 
Use limitation
Permission from client is required for any external use of this information. NIWA contact: Alison MacDiarmid 
Classification
Confidential  
Language
English  
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Metadata identifier
21f68788-ee6b-b21d-66fd-6178ad6ed3d6

Language
English  
Character encoding
UTF8  

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Dataset  
Date info ( Creation )
2015-06-09T16:38:01
Title
ISO 19115-3 
 
 

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