Evidence of Connectivity Between Juvenile and Adult Habitats for Mobile Marine Fauna: an Important Component of Nurseries
MARINE ECOLOGY PROGRESS SERIES Vol. 247: 281–295, 2003 Published February 4 Mar Ecol Prog Ser REVIEW Evidence of connectivity between juvenile and adult habitats for mobile marine fauna: an important component of nurseries Bronwyn M. Gillanders1,*, Kenneth W. Able2, Jennifer A. Brown3, David B. Eggleston4, Peter F. Sheridan5 1Department of Environmental Biology, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia 2Marine Field Station, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, 800 c/o 132 Great Bay Boulevard, Tuckerton, New Jersey 08087, USA 3A316 Earth and Marine Sciences Building, EE Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA 4North Carolina State University, Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695-8208, USA 5NOAA Fisheries, Southeast Fisheries Science Center, 3500 Delwood Beach Road, Panama City, Florida 32408, USA ABSTRACT: A critical link missing from our understanding of the nursery role of specific marine habitats is the evidence of connectivity between juvenile and adult habitats. This paper reviews and evaluates evidence of, and spatial scales for, movements from juvenile to adult habitats and it sum- marises the methods used to study movements. Examples include many fish families but few inverte- brate taxa, and most are species of economic importance for USA and Australia. The types of juvenile habitat range from the entire estuary or shallow open coastal waters to specific habitats within estu- aries or coastal waters; in some cases juvenile habitats include habitats not traditionally regarded as nursery areas (e.g. the surf zone). The duration of time spent in juvenile habitats averages 13 mo (range 8 d to 5 yr).
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