Abstract

Some coastal habitat types have been established as nursery grounds for estuarine and marine nekton, presumably because these habitats are the template on which population and community dynamics occur. However, the linkage between structured coastal habitat and nekton production is being altered by development; thus, we are studying this linkage while it is changing. Modification to coastal landscapes can have direct and indirect consequences that may lead to reduced or eliminated access to favorable nursery habitat, which is predicted to reduce growth, increase mortality, and/or modify settlement patterns. Cumulative impacts are more problematic because they are not immediately noted and build up over time to produce a more substantial impact to habitat. On a small scale, bulkheads, rip-rap, and levees eliminate or significantly reduce access to intertidal aquatic habitat, but these can accumulate across the landscape and fragment and reduce available habitat. However, the proliferation of patchiness (noncontinuous habitat segments) has received little attention in coastal environments but has been hypothesized to contribute to reduced environmental sustainability. Herein, we review the literature on habitat alteration in nearshore aquatic environments and provide a time line on the assessment of these alterations. Particular focus needs to be placed on assessing the ecological value of habitat that has undergone alteration versus that which is still natural or has recently undergone restoration in order to evaluate and predict habitat resilience and sustainability. Managers and policy makers must include cumulative impacts in their short- and long-term coastal management plans

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