Projekt NURSE FISH

Adriatic coastal habitats are highly structured and fragile ecosystems encompassing a variety of different bottom types and sustaining an incredible diversity of flora and fauna. Unfortunately, many of them are under increasing environmental and anthropogenic pressures and there is a lack of data on causal relationships of these pressures on the marine ecosystems. However, establishing causal relationships between a wide range of stressors and effects at the individual, species or community level on marine ecosystems, is a difficult task that requires the use of multiple lines of evidence. Nursefish project aims at improving our knowledge studying not only species’ presence or abundance but also their chance of survival, conditions for growth and reproduction, and successful habitats in each ecosystem. It will be conducted along the middle eastern Adriatic coast applying modern fieldwork and analysis methods.