Habitat quality of estuarine nursery grounds: Integrating non-biological indicators and multilevel biological responses in Solea senegalensis

• Published in: Ecological indicators Vol. 58; no. C; pp. 335 - 345
• Main Authors: Fonseca, V.F., Vasconcelos, R.P., Tanner, S.E., França, S., Serafim, A., Lopes, B., Company, R., Bebianno, M.J., Costa, M.J., Cabral, H.N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier Ltd 01.11.2015; Elsevier
• Subjects: Brackish; Coastal; Connectivity; Density; Drivers; Estuaries; Estuarine environments; Estuary; Habitats; Indicators; Nurseries; Nursery role; Quality assessment; Quality indicators; Solea senegalensis; ANE, Portugal, Aveiro, Ria de Aveiro; Quality indicators; Connectivity; Nursery role; Drivers; Estuary
• ISSN: 1470-160X; 1872-7034
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2015.05.064

•Nursery habitat quality was assessed via biological and non-biological indicators.•Soles’ biomarker responses to contamination signaled sites with higher human impact.•Potential hazardous effects not discernible in juveniles’ condition and density.•Higher density sites with higher impact, not main contributors to coastal stock.•Multiple indicators quality assessment broadly concordant but analysis is challenging. Estuaries are highly valuable ecosystems that provide various goods and services to society, such as food provision and supporting nursery habitats for various aquatic species. Estuarine habitat quality assessment is thus critical in managing both ecological and economic value. In this work, various biological and non-biological indicators of habitat quality in estuarine nursery areas were determined, encompassing local environmental conditions, chemical contamination, anthropogenic pressures, juvenile Solea senegalensis condition, biomarkers response to contamination and juvenile density. The various indicators provided an integrated view on habitat quality and their responses were broadly concordant. Nursery quality assessment based on anthropogenic pressure indicators and fish biomarker responses were very similar, signaling nursery areas with higher anthropogenic pressure in Tejo and Ria de Aveiro estuaries. Yet, favorable environmental conditions across all sites could have contributed to lessen the potential hazardous biological effects of exposure to anthropogenic stressors, resulting in soles’ fairly good condition and generally high juvenile density. Nevertheless, a mismatch between high juvenile density and high estuarine contribution to adult coastal populations was observed in areas with higher anthropogenic pressures. Although a causal relationship cannot be established, the results emphasize the need to fully understand how the estuarine period spent in estuaries and local processes determine the quantity and quality of juveniles exported to marine adult populations, which is critical to achieve the full potential of the fish production service of estuaries and coastal stock replenishment.