The underlying assumption is that restoration of saltmarsh habitat is beneficial to estuarine fish populations since such habitat is critical to early life history stages. However, few tests of this assumption have been accomplished under controlled conditions.
Adults spawn in deep water immediately adjacent to shallow flats and vegetated shoreline.
In most estuaries, postlarvae and early juveniles utilize these shallow marsh habitats as nurseries. It may be hypothesized that restoration actions should increase the extent of nursery habitat available to early life history stages of seatrout and other fish species. However, adverse effects are also possible. Long-term effects may include potential degradation or elimination of spawning sites and associated seatrout populations due to reduced salinities, altered vegetation and altered flow patterns over nearshore spawning and larval nursery areas in the estuary. Thus, management decisions and resultant actions aimed at restoring and enhancing overall coastal wetland ecosystem integrity, while maintaining key resident estuarine fish populations, will require the fundamental knowledge to be developed in the proposed research.