Marine habitat index

Index to NZ marine habitats

by Dr J Floor Anthoni (2001,...)
www.seafriends.org.nz/enviro/habitat/index.htm

Why is the seascape so variable? Why does one place look quite different from another one? Why is it is such a strange world? Wish to have a look at some strange places and the strange creatures living there? Click on 'introduction' first, then study the sample marine habitats.

Introduction What is a habitat? What physical and biotic factors cause habitats to differ? Climate regions, wave regimes, substrate, depth zones. Terminology, definitions and topographic scales. (14 pages)

Sample habitats A number of typical habitats have been treated in great detail, complete with species identification.

Classification The proposed classification of sea habitats, first by area, then by depth

Further reading Books and references

Related chapters Related chapters on this web site:
Biodiversity: understanding the variety of life and how the sea differs.
The war for marine reserves: how marine reserves are proposed and put in place, but don't work to save the sea.
Britain's marine habitat classification of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.

-- Seafriends home -- marine environment index -- 19971018,20010713,20070330,20070728,20090416,

Sample habitats
Some typical habitats have been treated in great detail:

Niue Island: a sampling of marine life at a cool-tropical coral island surrounded by a desert ocean. (large)
Kermadec Islands: a sampling of marine life at the subtropical Kermadec Islands, surrounded by a large open ocean. (80p)
North Island: a temperate sea dominated by seaweeds and characterised by high biodiversity

Rocky shore: the intertidal rocky shore is rich in specialised marine life. Why? (17p)

Shore species 1: identifying the fishes, crustaceans and echinoderms (17p)
Shore species 2: identifying the seasquirts, molluscs, flower animals and worms. (22p)
Shore species 3: identifying the coralline algae, green, brown and red seaweeds. (12p)
Rock pool: an enclave of shelter against harsh conditions. (4p)

The storm barrens of northern New Zealand: storm barrens of which urchin barrens are a subset, are quite varied (p)
The Goat Island marine reserve: exposed near-shore rocky shore, history, biogeography, ecology, dive sites and species identification. (88p)
The Poor Knights marine reserve: exposed off-shore rocky shore, an exposed island at the edge of the continental shelf: history, biogeography, ecology, dive sites and species identification (160p)
The Rainbow Warrior: a very small voluntary marine reserve (10p)

South Island: a cool temperate sea, dominated by seaweeds and having medium species richness.

In order to classify our diverse habitats, I propose the following classification which groups the habitats regionally, then by depth. We'll see how it works out in practice. (J F Anthoni) Note that Britain's marine habitat classification is in this order: substrate => exposure level => biological community => special cases

Climate region: From N to S and from W to E, New Zealand has several distinct climate regions in the sea

Wave regime: Coasts can be exposed, sheltered and enclosed

Substrate: Hard rock, soft rock, boulders, pebbles, sand, mud

Depth zone: Physical environmental conditions change rapidly with depth, leading to habitat zones.

Micro habitat: special cases: caves, archways, rockpools, etc.

Systematic index of New Zealand habitats: From the combinations of main physical factors, the following habitats are possible:

Kermadec: The Kermadec Islands 800Km north of NZ. Very exposed. No estuaries nor beaches.

Open Ocean

Epipelagic
Mesopelagic
Bathypelagic

Exposed

Rocky shore

Intertidal zone
Infralittoral zone
Circalittoral zone

East Auckland: From North Cape to East Cape, a shore with many estuaries and islands.

Open Ocean

Epipelagic
Mesopelagic
Bathypelagic

Sea bed

Continental shelf
Continental slope
Abyssal plane

Exposed

Rocky shore: clear water for diving.

Littoral zone: A rich community of small animals and plants surviving harsh conditions.

Rocky shore: the intertidal rocky shore is rich in specialised marine life.

Infralittoral zone

Bladderweed zone: The shallow seaweed zone is dominated by tough bladder weeds. Sleeping here is hell but there's a lot of food for agile grazers.
Barren zone: Sea urchins and other grazers keep a vast area of rock free from algae but there's evidence this zone is created by storms(storm barrens of NZ).
Kelp forest zone: Dominated by the Stalked Kelp and it extends down to 18m deep

Circalittoral zone

Deep Reef zone: The deep reef habitat is too deep for the brown and green seaweeds. Fragile animals such as sponges are found here.
Sponge Garden is a special case of the deep reef zone where flat reefs are regularly covered in sand.

Micro habitats

Shell trap: Shells washed up on a beach and transported by waves and currents, get trapped in the first outcrops of the rocky shore, providing abundance of food alternated by periods of famine.
Cave: Caves stop both current and light. Life inside them fades out soon away from the entrance. Some caves are barren, some not. Some have blowholes which make a big difference.
Archway: Archways are caves that let the current through.
Promontory: Promontories, jutting out in the current are where many pelagic fish congregate. Currents also make them deeper.

Beach

Littoral zone
Infralittoral zone
Circalittoral zone

Sheltered

Rocky shore

Littoral zone
Infralittoral zone
Circalittoral zone

Beach

Littoral zone
Infralittoral zone
Circalittoral zone

Enclosed

Rocky shore (estuary)

Littoral zone
Infralittoral zone
Circalittoral zone

Deep estuary

Sandflat

Littoral zone
Infralittoral zone

Current channel

Mudflat

Littoral zone

Mangrove
Eelgrass

West Auckland
Westland
EastCoast
Fiordland
SouthCoast
Sub-antarctic

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Amos, William: The life of the seashore (Our living world of nature). 1966.
Ayling, Tony and Geoffrey J Cox: (2) Collins Guide to the Sea Fishes of NZ.1982.1987.
Ballantine, W J: A biologically-defined exposure scale for the comparative description of rocky shores. 1961. Field Studies, 1 (3)
Bradstock, Mike: Between the tides, NZ shore and estuary life.1985.
Collins Nature Heritage Series: Offshore and outlying islands of NZ.1979.
Crisp, D J & Knight-Jones, E W: Grazing in terrestrial and marine environments. 1964. Blackwell, Oxford.
Gunson, Dave: Collins guide to the NZ seashore.1983
Gunson, Dave: A guide to the NZ shore.1993
Leigh Laboratory Publications

Marine Reserve Survey. (A M Ayling).1978

The Mokohinau Islands, a marine survey (Creese & Ballantine).1988

Lewis, J R: The ecology of rocky shores. 1964. London.
Miller, Michael and Gary Batt: (2) Reef and Beach life of NZ.1973
Morton, John:

Seacoast in the seventies - the future of NZ shorelines.1973

Rocky shore ecology of the Leigh area.1968

(2) The NZ Sea Shore (Morton & Miller).1973

A Natural History of Auckland.1993.

Newell, R C: Biology of intertidal animals. 1970. London
Stace, Glenys & Enderby, Tony and Jenny: What's on the beach? A guide to coastal marine life. 1997. VIKING-Penguin books.
Walsby, John: Nature watching at the beach.1990

Introduction		What is a habitat? What physical and biotic factors cause habitats to differ? Climate regions, wave regimes, substrate, depth zones. Terminology, definitions and topographic scales. (14 pages)
Sample habitats		A number of typical habitats have been treated in great detail, complete with species identification.
Classification		The proposed classification of sea habitats, first by area, then by depth
Further reading		Books and references
Related chapters		Related chapters on this web site: Biodiversity: understanding the variety of life and how the sea differs. The war for marine reserves: how marine reserves are proposed and put in place, but don't work to save the sea. Britain's marine habitat classification of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.