ABSTRACT
CONTENTS Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 211 Methods.................................................................................................................................................. 212
Study Site ..................................................................................................................................... 212 Field Monitoring .......................................................................................................................... 214 Model Description........................................................................................................................ 214 Model Formulation....................................................................................................................... 215
Loss ................................................................................................................................. 215 Productivity ..................................................................................................................... 215 Salinity Effect.................................................................................................................. 216 Light Effect ..................................................................................................................... 216 Temperature Effect .......................................................................................................... 217
Results .................................................................................................................................................... 217 Model Calibration ........................................................................................................................ 217 Validation Period: Modeling Recovery........................................................................................ 218 Representation of Environmental Variables................................................................................. 221 Effects of Acute Stress ................................................................................................................. 222
Discussion .............................................................................................................................................. 223 Salinity.......................................................................................................................................... 223 Light ............................................................................................................................................. 223 Temperature .................................................................................................................................. 224
Conclusions ............................................................................................................................................ 224 Acknowledgments.................................................................................................................................. 225 References .............................................................................................................................................. 225
Many organisms depend on estuaries during part of their life cycle (Gunter, 1961; Day et al., 1989). One of the more salient ecological or resource functions attributed to estuaries is their role as nursery areas for larval and juvenile stages of many species including commercially important fish and shellfish (Gunter, 1961; Rozas and Hackney, 1983, 1984). As much as 90% of the annual fisheries value for the Gulf of Mexico fisheries can be attributed to estuarine-dependent species (Seaman, 1988). Within estuaries, three nursery habitats have been recognized in the literature: wetlands (i.e., salt marshes, mangroves, and mudflats), the low-salinity region at the head of the estuary, and submerged aquatic grass beds (Day et al., 1989).
