Estuarine nurseries for marine fish

Abstract

Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH For Authors:If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service. Information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comWith over forty years' experience, Emerald Group Publishing is a leading independent publisher of global research with impact in business, society, public policy and education. In total, Emerald publishes over 275 journals and more than 130 book series, as well as an extensive range of online products and services. Emerald is both COUNTER 3 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -Estuaries and shallow coastal areas are among the most productive ecosystems in the world, being recognized as important nursery areas for marine fish. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the causes and consequences of recruitment variability in marine fish, contributing to ecosystem-based management strategies of estuarine and coastal areas. Design/methodology/approach -The authors conducted a literature review, exploring the role of estuaries as nursery areas for marine fish, and analyzed the connectivity between estuaries and coastal areas, the main processes driving recruitment variability in marine fish during their pelagic (larval) and estuarine residency (juveniles) phases, and how it can be translated into variable coastal stocks. Findings -Recruitment variability in marine fish is still one of the most important issues in marine fisheries ecology. In this paper, the authors demonstrate the potential of several processes for inducing variability in recruitment, including density-independent mechanisms such as temperature, hydrodynamics, river flow and large-scale factors, as well as density-dependent processes, related with food abundance, competition and predation. Lastly, the authors evaluated the connectivity between estuaries and the ocean, and how this relationship can influence coastal stocks in the future. The main findings were analyzed in the context of climate change, which has been demonstrated to influence marine life at the individual, population and ecosystem levels. Originality/value -This paper is a valuable tool for marine researchers and stakeholders, since it summarizes some of the most important processes that drive recruitment variability in marine fish, and how this information can be used for establishing sustainable ecosystem management programmes.

Effects of climate change on South African estuaries and associated fish species

“…According to Elliott (2002), climate change has the potential to affect major aspects of fish physiology, such as their salinity and temperature tolerances; this effect influences their ability to occupy estuarine habitats and ultimately the larger-scale distribution of species. Temperature-dependent processes vary over a species' latitudinal distribution, such that fish populations living at the edge of their species range may be more influenced by changes in temperatures than those living at the centre of their range (Martinho et al 2012). Distributions of these edge populations can be expected to shift as environmental conditions change.…”

Long-term functional changes in an estuarine fish assemblage

“…Previous studies from the last decade (from 2003 onwards) have already highlighted the importance of the estuary for maintaining marine species coastal stocks, such as D. labrax, S. solea and P. flesus Dolbeth et al, 2008;Vasconcelos et al, 2008). Still, there was slight decrease in the total percentage of commercial species during the drought period, as also debated by Dolbeth et al (2008), which might be related to recruitment variability in marine fish associated to freshwater flow or to higher predation pressure Martinho et al, 2012).…”

Fish larvae dynamics in temperate estuaries: A review on processes, patterns and factors that determine recruitment

“…The abundance of fish is highly variable through time and the species occurring at the adult stage in estuaries do not necessarily reflect the species composition at the larval stage (Amorim et al, 2018; Martinho et al, 2012; Primo et al, 2013). Early stages often spend months to years in these environments before recruiting to coastal adult populations (see reviews by Able, 2005; Beck et al, 2001; Gillanders et al, 2003), as observed for the Atlantic menhaden ( Brevoortia tyrannus , Clupeidae; Kroger & Guthrie, 1973), the common sole (Koutsikopoulos et al, 1995) or the European flounder ( Platichthys flesus , Pleuronectidae; Kerstan, 1991).…”