Center for Fisheries Enhancement

Program for Fisheries Habitat Ecology

FHE STAFF																																																																																																																																MISSION STATEMENT The Fisheries Habitat Ecology Program will achieve success in its efforts to understand and maintain the integrity of fish habitats through collaborations and a sound scientific approach, by conducting research that is applicable to management, and through outreach and education. APPROACH To the degree that benthic habitat connectivity is an important component of fish habitat use and fish distribution, it will be important to determine how ecological processes (e.g., growth, competition, predation, density-dependence) that operate within these habitats differ. This is especially important given the pace of anthropogenic habitat fragmentation in coastal areas. Studies of these processes should be framed within the context of habitat mosaics and dispersal corridors to better understand how habitat distribution influences fishes. Among the questions of interest in the Fisheries Habitat Ecology Program: Is there a threshold distance between habitats that determines whether a habitat is a source or sink for juveniles fishes? Are continuous dispersal corridors needed to provide food and refuge during movements between habitats occupied by different life stages? Which microhabitat characteristics are key to providing access from nursery to adult habitats? Which species will benefit from an increase in habitat fragmentation and which species will suffer declines in abundance? How are ontogenetic shifts impacted by disruptions of habitat connectivity?
RESEARCH
Seagrass
Mosquito Ditch Restoration
Seastar
Permit
Bonefish
Pinfish
Other Projects
COLLABORATIONS
FISH WE CATCH
INTERNSHIPS
FIELD HOUSE

Sampling gut contents of an adult
Snook in a local creek.
(Photo by: Andrew West of
the Fort Myers News Press)

Back To Mote HomePage

Back to Research Centers

Back to Center for Fisheries Enhancement

This Page Created By: Maggie Newton - E-mail me!
Last Updated on: March 24, 2004