The location and extent of Marine mammal sanctuaries in the territorial sea and the exclusive economic zone.

The location and extent of Marine reserves (type 1 marine protected areas) in the territorial sea.

Mast-seeding events occur when plant species (eg New Zealand flax or trees such as the beech species) produce very large amounts of seed, usually every 4–6 years. These events are vital for the survival of some indigenous bird species. Unfortunately, the increase in food supply also prompts a dramatic increase in the numbers of mice, rats, and stoats (a...

Note: Metadata relates to LiDAR point clouds. This layer has been provided to enable users to explore coverage and capture dates of the LiDAR. To enquire about ordering the LiDAR and/or related orthophotography, please e-mail lucas[at]mfe.govt.nz. Ministry for the Environment, Land Use Carbon Analysis System collection of swaths of LiDAR over planted...

Land Environments of New Zealand (LENZ) is a classification of fifteen climate, landform, and soil variables chosen for their relevance to biological distributions. Classification groups were derived by automatic classification using a multivariate procedure. Four levels of classification detail have been produced from this analysis, containing 20, 100,...

Soil moisture is important for plant growth. A lack of moisture content over a growing season is a good indicator of drought, which can have social, environmental, and economic impacts. Increasing temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns are expected to increase the frequency and intensity of drought in many regions. Growing season soil moisture...

"New Zealand’s land area has been divided into 500 land environments, each defined by their unique climate, topography, and soils. The extent to which indigenous vegetation is represented in these different land environments, and how that vegetation is formally protected, is described by ‘threatened environment’ categories. These categories can be...

"Land cover describes the extent of vegetation, water bodies, built environments, and bare natural surfaces (eg gravel and rock) across New Zealand. Measuring the composition and changes in land cover can help us understand the pressures that different land uses are placing on the biodiversity and functioning of ecosystems. This data set relates to the...

River water quality water is valued for many reasons including ecological function and habitat, recreational value, its role in supporting people and industry, and its cultural significance. Nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus are essential for plant growth, however too much in rivers can lead to ‘nuisance’ growths of river algae and aquatic plants,...

The REC groups rivers and parts of river networks that share similar ecological characteristics, including physical and biological. Rivers that share the same class can be treated as similar to one another and different to rivers in other classes. The REC classification system groups rivers according to several environmental factors that strongly...

Annual rainfall is the total accumulated rain over one year. Rain is vital for life, including plant growth, drinking water, river ecosystem health, and sanitation. Floods and droughts affect our environment, economy, and recreational opportunities. This dataset shows annual average rainfall across New Zealand for years 1972 to 2013. Annual rainfall is...

"Wetlands support unique biodiversity and provide important services. They clean water of nutrients and sediment, help dampen floods, provide habitat, and act as carbon sinks. They are also valued for their spiritual and cultural significance and as important sources of food and materials, such as flax. Draining them for agricultural and urban development...

The REC groups rivers and parts of river networks that share similar ecological characteristics, including physical and biological. Rivers that share the same class can be treated as similar to one another and different to rivers in other classes. The REC classification system groups rivers according to several environmental factors that strongly...

"This data records estimated erosion risk for different areas in the North Island. New Zealand experiences high rates of soil erosion. In the North Island, this is mostly due to the historical clearance of forest for agriculture (see also Estimated long-term soil erosion). In contrast, erosion in the South Island is mostly due to natural processes,...

The REC groups rivers and parts of river networks that share similar ecological characteristics, including physical and biological. Rivers that share the same class can be treated as similar to one another and different to rivers in other classes. The REC classification system groups rivers according to several environmental factors that strongly...

The REC groups rivers and parts of river networks that share similar ecological characteristics, including physical and biological. Rivers that share the same class can be treated as similar to one another and different to rivers in other classes. The REC classification system groups rivers according to several environmental factors that strongly...

"River flow refers to the quantity of water passing a point in the river over a certain amount of time. Different rivers have different flow patterns, such as sharp peak flows following rain with low flows in between, or high spring flows from snow melt. These flow characteristics affect how much water is available for irrigation, drinking water,...

"A unit of rock or sediment is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. Aquifers may occur at different depths in the same location. The map shows the areas of New Zealand’s land surface above one or more aquifers. The aquifer boundaries were described by White (2001), and some boundaries were updated by Moreau and Bekele (2015),...

The REC groups rivers and parts of river networks that share similar ecological characteristics, including physical and biological. Rivers that share the same class can be treated as similar to one another and different to rivers in other classes. The REC classification system groups rivers according to several environmental factors that strongly...

"This data describes the location of the different types of soil in New Zealand using the New Zealand Soil Classification. This data set relates to the "Soils" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website."