Abstract
The aim of this project is to evaluate the importance of habitat quality and quantity for the recruitment potential of fish using coastal nursery grounds. The quality of coastal nursery grounds can not be estimated directly from the viability of the adult fish stocks, but requires local investigations of the number and condition of juveniles leaving the nursery grounds. There has been a pronounced increase in the cover of filamentous macroalgae in the coastal zone over the last decades. Descriptive studies indicate that these changes alter the structure and function of the communities present, but there is no information on how the recruitment potential of fish populations is affected. In this project I will test hypothesis concerning the effect of algae on distribution, growth and survival of juvenile fish in the coastal zone. The effect of juvenile growth rate on the survival during later life stages will also be evaluated and the recruitment potential of the nursery grounds will be modelled based on the deliveries from this project.
Sweden