Coastal nursery habitats fundamentally provide resources for juvenile fish that enable rapid growth while affording a degree of protection from predation. The availability of these resources vary spatiotemporally and are a result of the larger environmental context in which these habitats sit. The use of such patches is therefore governed by the interplay between species' life history requirements and dynamic processes within the coastal ecosystem mosaic. Habitat quality, species ecology, and connectivity come together to create nursery habitat value.
This study focuses on the Lutjanus genus of tropical snapper and describes their use of coastal habitats during early life stages. Lutjanids utilise a range of interconnected coastal and marine habitats across their life cycle and show highly nuanced habitat use depending on environmental context, life stage, and species ecology. Fish assemblages were observed across two island estuary complexes, Magnetic and Hinchinbrook Islands, to determine the influence of environmental characteristics on tropical snapper early life-history ecology. A range of fine-scale ecological and environmental characteristics were quantified and modelled to determine their influence on the presence of certain species and life stages across two dramatically different environmental and ecological contexts. Such research provides a basis for more effective coastal management.