Linking fish recruitment and habitat use to ecosystem processes

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Estuaries are transition zones between fresh and marine waters and form key nursery areas for fisheries. Understanding what makes an estuary a nursery area, and how dependent fish are on estuaries, is difficult because we lack vital information on fish recruitment and migrations. We will utilise chemical and genetic techniques to determine patterns of recruitment and migration of fish and link these patterns to biological characteristics of fish and physical variables of surrounding landscapes. Outcomes will provide managers with key landscape attributes than require conservation. Such information is vital for continued sustainability of fish and estuarine resources and will benefit rural coastal communities.