Estuaries are considered as key habitats for the early life stages of fish. However, in the face of massive destruction of many estuarine intertidal areas, management and conservation measures are needed. Fish condition indicators may be used as a proxy of habitat quality and provide valuable information for management of coastal areas. In this study, the larvae of golden mullet ( Chelon auratus ) and European glass eels ( Ang...

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of environmental characteristics and anthropogenic pressures on the abundance of estuarine European eels (Anguilla anguilla L.) during their continental growth phase. European eels were collected with fyke nets from spring to autumn in twenty-nine estuaries along the French English Channel and the Atlantic coast. Eel abundance (catch per unit effort, CPUE) was assessed for...

Early life stages of fish (eggs and larvae) are particularly vulnerable with mortality rates of up to 99% recorded for a large number of species. High mortality rates result from the limited swimming ability of larvae preventing them from escaping sub‐optimal environmental conditions, predators or low prey density areas. In this context, estuaries are key nursery areas for larval and juvenile fish. Estuarine habitats offer env...

Aim We applied a diversity partitioning approach to identify the influence of multiple environmental factors on taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity of estuarine fish assemblages at different spatial scales. Our aim was to determine (1) how variation in γ‐diversity (estuary scale) is supported by changes in α‐ (local scale) and β‐components (dissimilarity between these two scales) for the three diversity facets and...