Acute increases in temperature linked with marine heatwaves have been occurring with increasing frequency around New Zealand. Additionally, as rainfall rates vary in association with climate change, the salinity regimes in estuaries are changing, often with more frequent pulses of low salinity events. These physical changes in the environment can lead to sublethal stress and changes in the distribution of marine organisms. Ech...

Seagrasses are critical coastal habitats that provide numerous ecosystem services. The inherent patchiness within meadows exerts a significant influence on the flow‐vegetation interaction, which, in turn, affects the array of services provided by these environments. We present field observations of vegetation distribution and hydrodynamic measurements within and surrounding an approximately 2 m diameter gap (bare sediment) in...

Identifying barriers to the effective use of science in coastal management of Aotearoa-New Zealand is easy, due to the present lack of complicated governance and management structures, coupled with an emphasis on funding science that includes pathways to implementation. This opinion piece discusses four areas that still hinder effective use of science, all of which are likely to be problematic for other countries. We initially...

Sediment resuspension is a frequent phenomenon in coastal areas and a key driver for many ecosystem functions. Sediment resuspension is often linked to biological and anthropogenic activities, which in combination with hydrodynamic forcing initiate sediment erosion and resuspension, if the erosion threshold ( τ c ) is exceeded. Despite its importance to ecosystem functions very few studies have provided measurements on natural...

We present field measurements of the movement of the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera under wave forcing. We resolve the depth and frequency‐dependent responses along the stipe and find different and counterintuitive patterns of response at the infragravity and swell wave forcing frequencies. At swell frequencies, tilting of the stipe is largest toward the holdfast, whereas at infragravity frequencies, the stipe tilting is larg...

During the past 30 years, 42 molecular studies have been undertaken in New Zealand to examine the phylogeography of coastal benthic invertebrates and plants. Here, we identify generalities and/or patterns that have emerged from this research and consider the processes implicated in generating genetic structure within populations. Studies have used various molecular markers and examined taxonomic groups with a range of life his...

In October 2001, we observed a deep‐ocean phytodetritus deposition event on Chatham Rise beneath the Subtropical Front (STF). The origin of this phytodetritus was probably an extensive phytoplankton bloom that occurred in the STF in the preceding weeks. We assessed the spatial distribution of the deposition event using video images from benthic lander and epibenthic trawl deployments and sediment pigment analyses at six sites...

Effects of macrofaunal feeding and bioturbation on intertidal sediment stability ( u * crit ) were investigated by manipulating density (0–3 × ambient) of the facultative deposit‐feeding wedge shell (Macomona liliana) on the Tuapiro sandflat in Tauranga Harbour, New Zealand. Sediment stability increased up to 200% with decreasing M. liliana density and this was correlated with greater sediment microalgal biomass and mucilage c...