One of three reports prepared for stage two of Hawke’s Bay regional study. This report describes the adaptation of the seafloor disturbance recovery model to the Hawke’s Bay, and the datasets used to parameterise the model scenarios. Lundquist C, Bulmer R, Yogesh N, Allison A, Leunissen E, Brough T (August 2022)
As part of the Hawke’s Bay regional study, we applied a seafloor model of disturbance and recovery dynamics to explore the implications of changes in the scale and intensity of different stressors for seafloor ecosystems. Exploratory scenarios, parameterised using local data on seafloor sediments and fisheries catch, were used to understand implications of individual stressors of land-based sediment inputs and of intensity of bottom impacts from trawl fisheries on benthic communities.
A final set of scenarios was then designed by the Hawke’s Bay Coastal and Marine Group to explore the outcome on seafloor communities when combinations of reductions in sediment and fishing stressors were applied.
These scenarios varied three different levers: