Table 2. Mean environmental characteristics (standard deviation) and number of macrozoobenthic species encountered during macrobenthic sampling.

Highest mean environmental characteristics, as identified by single variable ANOVA’s, in bold.

	Kaipara	Tauranga	Manukau
Sampling 2012	18 & 19 April	23 & 24 April	4 & 5 May
Species (n)	114	81	109
Individuals (n)	21846	25394	26573
Median grain size (μm)	213 (14.7)	197 (23.4)	166 (35.1)
Silt (%)	1 (2.3)	5 (3.1)	14 (10.5)
Very fine sediments (%)	6 (2.9)	17 (4.8)	17 (5.9)
Fine sediments (%)	61 (4.6)	44 (5.7)	48 (10.8)
Medium sediments (%)	32 (6.5)	28 (5.4)	18 (7.2)
Coarse sediments (%)	0.4 (0.5)	6 (3.4)	3 (4.7)
Organic content (%)	0.8 (0.2)	2 (0.6)	2 (1.1)
Chlorophyll a (mg/g)	5 (3.1)	11 (4.2)	23 (7.4)
Bare sand cover (%)	84 (28.1)	73 (18.9)	79 (23.5)
Shell hash cover (%)	2 (3.3)	3 (4.2)	16 (17.6)
Sea grass cover (%)	13 (27.2)	23 (18.3)	5 (18.4)