Skip to main content

National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis

Project Description

Wetland (herein, estuarine marsh and mangrove) and seagrass habitats are extraordinarily productive, and are believed to play a nursery role in which juvenile fish and shellfish occur at high densities, avoid predation, grow quickly, and then migrate offshore to appropriate adult habitat. The nursery role of these habitats is a pervasive concept, and it is important in research, conservation, and management. There is, however, growing recognition that the evidence that supports this paradigm is not cohesive and sometimes weak or contradictory. A clear understanding of the importance of seagrass and wetland habitats in the life cycles of marine species is urgently needed, because these habitats are declining rapidly worldwide. In the USA, the recently revised Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act requires all eight Regional Fishery Management Councils to define, protect, and restore "Essential Fish Habitat". If seagrasses and wetlands are nursery grounds then new measures can and should be directed towards their conservation as Essential Fish Habitat.

Our goal is to form three small working groups to critically evaluate the nursery role concept for seagrass and wetland habitats. We will determine the extent to which the density, survival, and growth of animals are greater in these habitats than elsewhere and examine the characteristics of these habitats that most affect secondary productivity. We will also use bioenergetic simulation models to estimate the contribution of seagrasses and wetlands to offshore secondary production and examine the predicted effects of the continued loss of these habitats. We plan to synthesize and make these results useful not only to scientists but also to NGO's, and state and government agencies to better inform management and conservation of coastal environments.

Principal Investigator(s)

Michael W. Beck, Kenneth L. Heck

Project Dates

Start: December 14, 1999

End: December 17, 1999

completed

Participants

Kenneth Able
State University of New Jersey, Rutgers
Michael W. Beck
The Nature Conservancy
Jennifer A. Brown
University of California, Santa Cruz
Daniel L. Childers
Florida International University
Felicia C. Coleman
Florida State University
David B. Eggleston
North Carolina State University
Mark S. Fonseca
NOAA, National Ocean Service (NOS)
Bronwyn Gillanders
University of Adelaide
Benjamin S. Halpern
University of California, Santa Barbara
Cynthia Hays
University of California, Santa Cruz
Kenneth L. Heck
Dauphin Island Sea Laboratory
Kaho Hoshino
University of California, Santa Barbara
Fiorenza Micheli
Università di Pisa
Thomas Minello
NOAA, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)
Robert J. Orth
Virginia Institute of Marine Science
Pete Sheridan
NOAA, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)
Michael P. Weinstein
New Jersey Marine Sciences Consortium

Products

  1. Presentations / 2001

    Identification, conservation and management of estuarine and marine invertebrates: A National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis Working Group Report

  2. Journal Article / 2001

    The identification, conservation, and management of estuarine and marine nurseries for fish and invertebrates

  3. Journal Article / 2003

    The role of nearshore ecosystems as fish and shellfish nurseries

  4. Data Set / 2006

    A review of studies on the nursery role of nearshore habitats

  5. Journal Article / 2003

    Evidence of connectivity between juvenile and adult habitats for mobile marine fauna: An important component of nurseries

  6. Journal Article / 2003

    Critical evaluation of the nursery role hypothesis for seagrass meadows

  7. Journal Article / 2003

    Salt marshes as nurseries for nekton: Testing hypotheses on density, growth and survival through meta-analysis

  8. Journal Article / 2003

    Are mangroves nursery habitat for transient fishes and decapods?

  9. Journal Article / 2014

    Restoration ecology: Ecological fidelity, restoration metrics, and a systems perspective

  10. Journal Article / 2016

    Macro-restoration of tidal wetlands: A whole estuary approach

  11. Journal Article / 2019

    Response of Nekton to Tidal Salt Marsh Restoration, a Meta-Analysis of Restoration Trajectories

Are you part of a working group or visiting NCEAS for another opportunity? Check out our page of resources for you.

Learn More