Coastal and estuarine ecosystems are affected by changes in the levels of nutrients, oxygen, and light. An overload of nutrients can be toxic or lead to algal blooms. These blooms can kill marine life by depleting oxygen levels. Suspended sediment can smother habitats or reduce light levels, affecting photosynthesis. We report on five measures of water quality: turbidity (murkiness), dissolved oxygen, and the dissolved nutrients nitrate- and nitrite-nitrogen, ammoniacal nitrogen, and total phosphorus.
This dataset relates to the "Coastal and estuarine water quality" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website.