Geographical Area
Nelson is the fifteenth largest city in New Zealand (population of 55,200), and its coastline is home to high value estuarine seagrass and salt marsh habitats and a biodiverse marine space. This marine area accommodates the Horoirangi Marine Reserve, the customary fishery area of the Wakapuaka Taiāpure, and Port Nelson: the largest fishing port in Australasia.
The overall aim is to improve our understanding of climate change impacts on our threatened coastal habitats, identifying options for habitat refugia. With the help of citizen scientists, we will use eDNA tools to characterise habitat connectivity and ecological corridors, and identify changes to species composition across habitats and in relation to human impacts. We will assess how future marine spatial planning tools could interact with our existing measures including marine reserve protection, taiāpure, and marine areas of significant conservation value. By synergising with ongoing region-wide conservation efforts, we hope that our BioProtect project can contribute invaluable new information to the protection and restoration of the Nelson/Whakatū coastal and marine environment.
Coastal ecosystem health within NZ is declining at an alarming rate. Wetlands, seagrass meadows, temperate rocky reefs and shellfish reefs are four key significant habitats that will be protected in the Nelson region using BioProtect’s area-based management solutions. There are many species within these four habitats, all of which are worth protecting.
