Environment and migration

1. Environment and migration Facilitating fish movements between the sea and freshwater in developed coastal zones: engineering solutions to challenges of fish passage Impact The research will provide engineers and managers with the critical information needed to design multi-species fish passage facilities/strategies to mitigate for the environmental impact of continued development of the coastal zones (e.g., sea defences, tidal barrages and weirs, and tidal gates and sluices). • The Research • The importance of shallow-water coastal and estuarine “transitional” habitats is important for many economically significant fish species (e.g. salmon and trout, eel, mullet, sea bass, and flounder). • Little is known of how fish utilise and move between these habitats, and how habitat utilisation is linked to productivity and population viability. • The impacts on fisheries of coastal development and associated habitat fragmentation and loss, exacerbated by climate change, are thought will likely be significant, but remain poorly defined. • Recent and future legislation (e.g. Water Framework Directive and Marine and Coastal Access Bill) has enhanced protection of transitional environments, yet there is a need to better understand how these systems function and how they are perturbed to identify mitigation solutions by engineering means. • Research conducted at the University of Southampton aims to investigate the importance of transitional habitats for multiple life phases of key target species and quantify the impacts of critical engineering structures on ecological integrity, particularly structures that impede the movements of fish between essential habitat. Engineering solutions to aid fish passage will be developed. In the field of fish passage research, the School of Civil Engineering and the Environment at the University of Southampton collaborates closely with, and is funded by, the Environment Agency, the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, and the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust. For more information see www.icer.soton.ac.uk Tidal flaps can Significantly block Fish movement www.southampton.ac.uk