Freshwater Data - Page 9

Submerged plants are good indicators of the ecological quality of lakes. Because they are attached to the bed of lakes, submerged plants are easy to observe and identify, and they are unable to move away from environmental changes. The plant species found within lakes can tell us about their level of habitat degradation and exotic weed invasion.

The file contains Lake submerged plant index scores for each sampling occasion.

The most recent assessment of ecological condition of 295 lakes in New Zealand assessed on at least one occasion between 1991 and 2019 was measured using the lake submerged plant index (LakeSPI).

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 indicator measures groundwater quality in New Zealand’s aquifers and how it is changing over time, based on measurements made at monitored sites. We report on nitrate-nitrogen, ammoniacal nitrogen, dissolved reactive phosphorus, chloride, conductivity and Escherichia coli (E. coli) including:

• trends in concentrations for 10-year (2009–18) and 20-year (1999–2018) periods.

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.