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Periphyton and Macrophyte Outcomes for Aquatic Ecosystem Health in Rivers and Streams Technical Report to Support the Draft Natural Resources Plan

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Periphyton and Macrophyte Outcomes for Aquatic Ecosystem Health in Rivers and Streams Technical Report to Support the Draft Natural Resources Plan Periphyton and macrophyte outcomes for aquatic ecosystem health in rivers and streams Technical report to support the draft Natural Resources Plan S Greenfield Environmental Science Department For more information, contact the Greater Wellington Regional Council: Wellington GW/ESCI-T-14/58 PO Box 11646 ISBN 978-1-927217-40-5 (online) T 04 384 5708 June 2014 F 04 385 6960 www.gw.govt.nz www.gw.govt.nz [email protected] Report prepared by: S Greenfield Senior Environmental Scientist Report reviewed by: J Milne Team Leader – Aquatic ecosystems and quality Report approved for release by: G Sevicke-Jones Manager, Environmental Science Date: June 2014 DISCLAIMER This report has been prepared by Environmental Science staff of Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) and as such does not constitute Council policy. In preparing this report, the authors have used the best currently available data and have exercised all reasonable skill and care in presenting and interpreting these data. Nevertheless, GWRC does not accept any liability, whether direct, indirect, or consequential, arising out of the provision of the data and associated information within this report. Furthermore, as GWRC endeavours to continuously improve data quality, amendments to data included in, or used in the preparation of, this report may occur without notice at any time. GWRC requests that if excerpts or inferences are drawn from this report for further use, due care should be taken to ensure the appropriate context is preserved and is accurately reflected and referenced in subsequent written or verbal communications. Any use of the data and information enclosed in this report, for example, by inclusion in a subsequent report or media release, should be accompanied by an acknowledgement of the source. The report may be cited as: Greenfield S. 2014. Periphyton and macrophyte outcomes for aquatic ecosystem health in rivers and streams: Technical report to support the draft Natural Resources Plan. Greater Wellington Regional Council, Publication No. GW/ESCI-T-14/58, Wellington. Contents Executive summary i 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Report outline 1 2. River classification 3 3. RSoE periphyton monitoring sites and methods 5 3.1 Sample collection methods 7 3.2 Periphyton biomass measurement and taxonomic identification methods 7 3.3 Macroinvertebrate and supporting environmental data 8 4. Data analysis methods 9 4.1 Periphyton community composition 9 4.2 Periphyton biomass and cover 10 5. Periphyton community composition 11 5.1 Annual variation 11 5.2 Variation between sites and FENZ classes 12 5.3 Relationships with environmental variables 14 6. Periphyton biomass 16 6.1 Periphyton biomass across FENZ classes 16 6.2 Relationship with community composition 17 6.3 Relationship with periphyton cover 18 6.4 Relationship with environmental factors 20 6.5 Relationship with macroinvertebrate health 23 7. Recommended periphyton attributes and outcomes 27 7.1 Classes C7, C10 and UR 27 7.2 Classes C5, C6a, C6b and C1 28 7.3 Classes C8, A, C6c and B 28 8. Macrophytes 29 8.1 Recommended macrophyte attributes and outcomes 29 9. Heterotrophic growths 30 9.1 Recommended heterotrophic growth attributes and outcomes 30 10. Supporting factors controlling instream plant growth 31 10.1 Hydrological regime 31 10.2 Nutrient supply 31 10.3 Light availability 31 11. Summary and recommendations 32 11.1 Recommendations for future work 32 11.1.1 Data collection 32 11.1.2 Taxonomic identification 32 11.1.3 Periphyton biomass 33 11.1.4 Periphyton cover 33 References 34 Acknowledgements 36 Appendix 1: RSoE site details and accrual periods 37 Appendix 2: List of periphyton taxa present at RSoE sites 38 Periphyton and macrophyte outcomes for aquatic ecosystem health in rivers and streams Executive summary This report presents technical background to instream plant indicators of river and stream ecosystem health recommended for inclusion in the draft Natural Resources Plan (dNRP) for the Wellington region. It was originally drafted prior to the release of the Regional Plan Working Document for Discussion (WDFD) in September 2013 (GWRC 2013) but was not completed due in part to uncertainty about changes that might be made in response to the release of the National Objectives Framework (NOF) under the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPS-FM). Although the outcomes recommended in this report differ from the final recommendations for the dNRP documented in Greenfield (2014a) this report presents relevant background analysis and a record of the evolution of outcomes for the dNRP. Rivers State of the Environment (RSoE) instream plant, macroinvertebrate and supporting environmental data (eg, water quality, land cover, accrual period) collected from the Wellington region between 2004 and 2012 were analysed to assess the suitability of instream plant indicators for use in the dNRP (where they are referred to as ‘attributes’) and to help identify numeric thresholds to represent the desired levels of ecosystem health (referred to as ‘outcomes’). Outcomes representing two levels of ecosystem health were identified – a default ‘healthy’ level which applies to all rivers and streams in the region and a higher level which applies to rivers and streams identified as supporting ‘significant indigenous ecosystems’ in Table 16 of the Regional Policy Statement (GWRC 2013). Data analysis and identification of outcomes were based around the Freshwater Environments of New Zealand (FENZ) classification to account for natural variability in river and stream ecosystems across the region. Periphyton community composition showed some variation across the different FENZ classes. However, the correlation between periphyton community composition and environmental variables was poor, with insufficient taxonomic resolution likely to be a key contributing factor. For this reason numeric outcomes for periphyton community composition should not be included in the dNRP. Periphyton biomass varied across FENZ classes and was moderately correlated with environmental variables. A regression tree model suggested that water temperature, water clarity, dissolved nutrient concentrations and biomass accrual period are key drivers of periphyton growth. Periphyton biomass was also strongly correlated with Macroinvertebrate Community Index (MCI) score. It is recommended that numeric outcomes for periphyton biomass be included in the dNRP. These outcomes should ideally be based on the relationship between periphyton biomass and macroinvertebrate indicators across different FENZ classes in the Wellington region. Given this information is currently lacking, the following periphyton biomass outcomes based on the New Zealand Periphyton Guidelines (Biggs 2000) are recommended in the interim: i Periphyton and macrophyte outcomes for aquatic ecosystem health in rivers and streams Recommended annual maximum chlorophyll a (Chl. a) outcomes for ‘significant aquatic ecosystem’ and ‘healthy aquatic ecosystem’ levels of protection for FENZ classes in the Wellington region Significant aquatic ecosystem outcome Healthy aquatic ecosystem outcome FENZ class (Chl. a mg/m2) (Chl. a mg/m2) C7, C10 and UR 50 50 C5, C6a, C6b and C1 50 120 C8, A, C6c and B 120 200 There were insufficient macrophyte data available for the Wellington region to identify numeric outcomes for this attribute. The following narrative standard is recommended for heterotrophic growths associated with point source discharges: “There shall be no bacterial or fungal slime growths visible to the naked eye as plumose growths or mats”. ii Periphyton and macrophyte outcomes for aquatic ecosystem health in rivers and streams 1. Introduction Objective 13 of the Regional Policy Statement (RPS) for the Wellington region (GWRC 2013) states that the region’s rivers must support healthy functioning ecosystems as a bottom line. Policy 17 of the RPS states that the Regional Plan should include policies and rules that protect the significant indigenous ecosystems1 associated with rivers listed in Appendix 1 of the RPS. In order to implement the RPS the regional plans for the Wellington region are currently under review and a draft Natural Resources Plan (dNRP) will be released later in 2014. The dNRP will include numeric objectives or ‘outcomes’ for a range of river and stream health indicators (referred to as ‘attributes’ in the planning sense). As a default, numeric outcomes will be set at a level that will support ‘healthy functioning ecosystems’. Outcomes representing a higher level of protection to support ‘significant indigenous ecosystems’ will also be identified for those rivers and streams identified in Table 16 of the RPS. Numeric outcomes must take into account natural variation in rivers and streams in the region. This report was originally drafted prior to the release of the Regional Plan Working Document for Discussion (WDFD) in September 2013 but was not completed due in part to uncertainty about changes that might be made in response to the release of the National Objectives Framework (NOF) under the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPS-FM). Although the outcomes recommended in this report differ from the final recommendations for the dNRP documented in Greenfield (2014a), this report presents relevant background analysis and a record of the evolution of outcomes for the dNRP. Biological indicators used to represent the ecological health of rivers and streams in the Wellington region include: Instream macrophytes and periphyton Macroinvertebrates Native
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