Life cycle critical areas#
Description#
Areas important for the completion of life cycles: nursery, feeding, spawning, breeding, ecological corridors-connectivity among areas, etc.
Life cycle critical areas: This macro-criterion corresponds to the need for organisms to move between vital (critical) areas in order to fulfil their vital functions and complete their life cycle. It therefore refers to areas important for the completion of the life cycle of organisms (nursery, feeding, spawning, breeding) and the ecological corridors - links between these areas, etc. Criteria within this macro-criterion include ecological corridors/migration routes, steppingstone areas, refuge areas, larval sources and spawning aggregation areas, nursery and breeding areas, recruitment areas (larval sinks), development and feeding/foraging habitats/areas. A possible methodological strategy to address this macro-criterion is the modelling of species and habitat distributions and ecological connectivity (D3.4).