Evidence for the effects of land use on freshwater ecosystems in New Zealand

To meet the challenges of preventing and reversing adverse effects of land use on ecosystems, management actions need to be founded on strong evidence. We used the pressure-state-impact (PSI) framework to assess evidence of land-use effects on New Zealand freshwater ecosystems. The evidence consiste...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:New Zealand journal of marine and freshwater research 2020-07, Vol.54 (3), p.551-591
Main Authors: Larned, Scott T., Moores, Jonathan, Gadd, Jenni, Baillie, Brenda, Schallenberg, Marc
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aquatic ecosystems
Aquifers
Catchment area
Catchment areas
Contaminants
Correlation
Ecology
Ecosystem management
Ecosystems
Environmental changes
Environmental impact
evidence
Fluvial sediments
Forest harvesting
Freshwater
Freshwater ecosystems
Inland water environment
Lakes
Land cover
land management practice
Land pollution
Land use
Land use management
Photosystem I
pressure-state-impact
Restocking
Rivers
Sediment pollution
Stock assessment
Stocking rates
Strategic management
Water pollution
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Summary:To meet the challenges of preventing and reversing adverse effects of land use on ecosystems, management actions need to be founded on strong evidence. We used the pressure-state-impact (PSI) framework to assess evidence of land-use effects on New Zealand freshwater ecosystems. The evidence consisted of published quantitative and categorical associations linking land-use pressures to state changes and ecological impacts in rivers, lakes and aquifers. There was substantial evidence of land-use effects, particularly where land use/land cover (LULC) classes were used as pressure variables. Proportions of catchment area in urban and pastoral LULC were consistently, positively correlated with contaminant levels in water bodies and negatively correlated with ecological-health indicators. Other consistent PSI associations included positive correlations between cattle stocking rates and river contaminant levels, increased fine sediment and decreased ecological-health scores in rivers following forest harvest, and increased river contaminant levels at sites with stock access. Despite these consistent associations, the evidence base has four general shortcomings that should be addressed: (1) inadequate integration of data and models that link land use and contaminant loss to state changes and impacts in freshwater ecosystems; (2) weak inferences based on LULC; (3) reliance on categorical PSI associations; (4) gaps in reported PSI associations.
ISSN:0028-8330
1175-8805
DOI:10.1080/00288330.2019.1695634