Debra J. Stokes

Southern Cross University · Marine Ecology Research Centre (MERC)

Hybrid living shorelines use a combination of engineered structures with natural ecosystems to achieve coastal protection and habitat restoration outcomes, with added co-benefits such as carbon sequestration. Rock fillets constructed along eroding estuarine banks are designed to accumulate sediment, establish mangroves, and stabilise the shoreline....

Mangroves are often considered integral engineers of morphologic evolution, but mangroves can also opportunistically respond to morphologic change created by abiotic sedimentary processes. Consequently, predicting the response of individual estuarine environments to changes in mangrove extent is challenging. Here, the impact of mangrove extent was...

Management of human-wildlife conflict is often challenging and complex, particularly when the conflict involves sharks. New technologies are being trialled in New South Wales, on Australia's east coast, to accommodate the community demand for increased beach-user protection that does not harm marine wildlife. Drones (or unmanned aerial vehicles), a...

In contrast to the global trend of mangrove decline, New Zealand mangroves are rapidly expanding, facilitated by elevated sediment inputs in coastal waters as a consequence of large-scale land use changes following European settlement. New Zealand mangroves are at the southern limit of the global mangrove extent, which limits the tree height of Avi...

Forests along the Amazon Basin produce significant quantities of organic material, a portion of which is deposited in floodplain lakes. Deforestation in the watershed may then have potentially important effects on the carbon fluxes. In this study, a sediment core was extracted from an Amazon floodplain lake to examine the relationship between carbo...

The forests along the Amazon Basin produce significant quantities of organic material, a portion of which is deposited in floodplain lakes. However, potentially important effects of ongoing deforestation in the watershed on these carbon fluxes is still poorly understood. Here, a sediment core was extracted from an Amazon floodplain lake to examine...

Anthropogenic radionuclide signatures associated with nuclear testing are increasingly utilized in environmental science to explore recent sedimentation. In this study, we assess the suitability of Pu radioisotope analysis in floodplain lake environments in the Amazon Basin to form geochronologies during the 20th century. The 240Pu + 239Pu (240+239...

Restoration projects require an underpinning of science to maximise success at restoring ecological function. Occasionally wetland restoration objectives focus on clearing intertidal vegetation, including removal of introduced and rapidly expanding native species, such as the expansion of mangrove forests in New Zealand. Typical objectives of these...

The Amazon floodplains cover approximately 10% of the Amazon Basin and are composed of predominantly anoxic sediments that may store large amounts of carbon. Our study combines 210Pb derived sedimentation rates from four recently analyzed sediment cores (n=54) with previously published organic carbon (OC) burial estimates (n=518) to provide a broad...

Mangrove expansion has been observed in numerous harbours and estuaries of the North Island of New Zealand. Recently, the removal of above-ground mangrove vegetation has been initiated to halt this expansion. A key objective of mangrove clearing is to return a site to a sandier substrate, however limited monitoring has been undertaken to determine...

In recent years, mangrove expansion has become a coastal management issue in the North Island of New Zealand. Little is known about the spatial evolution and forest structure of temperate mangrove forests in New Zealand or about the associated rates of sedimentation. The extent of mangrove colonization in both a large (Waikareao Estuary) and small...

Since the 1940s mangroves have expanded their areal coverage in many estuaries in the northern half of the North Island of New Zealand. The extent of mangrove colonization in Waikaraka Estuary, Tauranga Harbour, has been documented using photogrammetric analysis, and the impacts of subsequent mangrove removal are analysed. Surface elevation changes...

Mangrove expansion has been observed in numerous harbours and estuaries of the North Island of New Zealand. Recently, the removal of above-ground mangrove vegetation has been initiated to halt this expansion. A key objective of mangrove clearing is to return a site to a sandier substrate, however limited monitoring has been undertaken to determine...

Sediment cores were taken and epifaunal counts carried out in the following areas:1. cleared and mown mangrove habitat (site WMA) 2. cleared but not mown mangrove habitat (site WMB) 3. recently cleared mangrove habitat (site WMC) 4. intact mangrove habitat (site WMD) 5. bare (undisturbed) intertidal flat habitat (site WME)Sample analyses confirmed...

Mangrove (Avicennia marina var. australasica) populations have expanded rapidly in recent years in northern parts of New Zealand. In some estuaries and harbours, an increase in coverage of 120% over the last 50 years has been recorded. Conflicting public perceptions of mangroves cause difficulty in designing agreeable management strategies. Perceiv...

Mangroves in New Zealand? New Zealand must be far too cold for such things, surely? And they want to get rid of them? How curious. Surely there’s a PhD thesis in that?