Author(s)

N.J. Frost, S.C. Hull & S.M. Freeman

Abstract

Estuaries and other sheltered, coastal environments are common locations for centres of human population and associated facilities. These areas are also often characterised by important intertidal habitats that support large populations of sediment-dwelling animals and the birds that feed upon them. Such areas are generally protected under national, European or international nature conservation legislation and agreements. Proposed developments that involve loss of or alteration to intertidal habitats must, therefore, give careful consideration to impacts on the associated faunal communities. At present, the ability to make quantitative predictions of how habitats and their faunal communities will change in response to physical changes in an estuary is limited. This paper describes two ecological models that predi

Keywords