If changes to the beach are not too drastic, living things there are able to accommodate or recover from the changes

A penguin having fuel oil cleaned off it after the Rena wreck.

Storms can destroy complex ecosystems in rock pools, but they can be recolonised from the free-swimming juveniles and seaweed spores amongst the drifting plankton.

Kelp forests after the Kaikōura earthquake
Fisheries in New Zealand – timeline
Adapting to marine habitats
Estuary formation
Rena wrecked on reef: oil clean-up on-going

Related activities

Cleaning up oil in water
Responding to Rena
Identifying marine stressors
Modelling marine stressors and tipping points

Related images

Beach clean-up after oil spill
De-oiled penguin

Rights: Maritime New Zealand

Published: 25 August 2021Size: 93.8 KB

Referencing Hub media

If changes to the beach are not too drastic, living things there are able to accommodate or recover from the changes

Explore related content

Interactive

Tidal communities

Article

Habitats, food webs and adaptations

Article

Kelp forests after the Kaikōura earthquake

Article

Investigating marine and coastal tipping points