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Sediment-dwelling organisms

  1. Environment »
  2. Coastal and marine »
  3. Monitoring coastal and marine ecosystem health »
  4. Regional Estuary Monitoring Programme (REMP) »
  5. Sediment-dwelling organisms

Because sediment-dwelling organisms respond predictably to many kinds of natural and human-made stresses or disturbances they have been widely used as indicators of estuary health in environmental monitoring programmes worldwide. Changes in the types and abundance of animals present within an estuary may indicate the effects of localised disturbances (e.g. channel dredging) or regional-scale pressures or activities (e.g. terrigenous sediment, nutrient enrichment).

Find out more about the sediment dwelling organisms from the Waikato region

Polychaetes - segmented marine worms

Bivalves - a class of mollusc

Crustaceans - a sub-class of aquatic arthropods

Gastropods - a class of molluscs, commonly referred to as snails and slugs

Anthozoa - an aquatic class of animals including reef building ‘stony’ corals and sea anemones