A global assessment of fish estuary associations: A numerical approach to assessing estuary‐associated fish functional guilds

Abstract

AbstractA novel fish estuary‐association scoring (FEAS) system that numerically expresses the relative position or level of estuarine‐association for each species has been developed. A dataset numerically describing the degree or level of estuarine‐association for some 6,000 fish species has been established based on an extensive review of the scientific literature on coastal and freshwater fishes. The FEAS reflects both globally recognized fish estuary‐association functional guilds as well as the continuum of fish estuarine use and dependence. The application of FEAS to numerically analyse and functionally compare estuarine fish communities using a range of statistical and analytical methods is demonstrated by examples from a variety of studies around the world; its use as a potential environmental monitoring and assessment tool is also presented.