The ocean storm index estimates the number of days in a year when wind speeds exceed gale and storm force on the Beaufort Scale. In a gale, sea conditions are rough and waves can be over six metres high. In a storm, waves can be over 10 metres high. To put this into context, on land a near gale would make walking difficult, and a storm would cause some...

The average concentration of chlorophyll-a (chl-a) in phytoplankton for 2015. Concentrations of chl-a in phytoplankton are used to assess primary productivity in our oceans. Phytoplankton are primary producers of biomass (mass of living organisms) and form the main basis of marine food chains. They use the chl-a pigment to capture the sun’s energy through...

The oceans store most of the excess energy accumulated due to increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere warming the surface layer. These long-term increases in temperature caused by climate change are in addition to natural variability where ocean temperatures change in response to climate oscillations like the El Niño Southern Oscillation. Changes in...

The oceans store most of the excess energy accumulated due to increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere warming the surface layer. These long-term increases in temperature caused by climate change are in addition to natural variability where ocean temperatures change in response to climate oscillations like the El Niño Southern Oscillation. Changes in...

Sunshine is essential for our mental and physical well-being and plant growth. It is also important for tourism and recreation. More information on this dataset and how it relates to our environmental reporting indicators and topics can be found in the attached data quality pdf.

This layer is the total rainfall for the year 2016, summed from interpolated daily rainfall, in mm, not the average. More information on this dataset and how it relates to our environmental reporting indicators and topics can be found in the attached data quality pdf.

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...

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...

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 layer shows the annual rainfall as a percentage of normal across New Zealand for 1995 as part of the...

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 layer shows the annual rainfall as a percentage of normal across New Zealand for 1972 as part of the...

Raster layer with 100m * 100m pixels, Each pixel represents the estimated nitrate-N leached in kg/ha/yr. This layer contains all nitrate leaching estimated from beef cows. More information on this dataset and how it relates to our environmental reporting indicators and topics can be found in the attached data quality pdf.

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...

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...

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...

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...

Rain is vital for life – it supplies the water we need to drink and to grow our food, keeps our ecosystems healthy, and supplies our electricity. New Zealand’s mountainous terrain and location in the roaring forties mean rainfall varies across the country. Changes in rainfall amount or timing can significantly affect agriculture, energy, recreation, and...

These data estimate the occurence of extreme wave events in coastal and oceanic waters for 2012, particularly for wave events where significant wave height exceeds a threshold of 6 metres and for a period of at least 12 hours. Significant wave height is defined as four times the square root of the variance of sea surface elevation due to wave motion. More...

The average concentration of chlorophyll-a (chl-a) in phytoplankton over the period 1997–2014. Concentrations of chl-a in phytoplankton are used to assess primary productivity in our oceans. Phytoplankton are primary producers of biomass and form the basis of the oceans’ food chains.

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...