(e.g., rare vs. common habitats, habitat size, location)
Habitat distribution can be patchy and some habitats may be rare but fundamentally important to the system. Consider the distribution and arrangement of habitats at a variety of spatial scales (e.g., local and regional) to determine if the impacts from an activity are likely to negatively affect a significant portion of a habitat.
Nearshore estuarine and marine ecosystems—e.g., seagrass meadows, marshes, and mangrove forests—serve many important functions in coastal waters. Most notably, they have extremely high primary and secondary productivity and support a great abundance and diversity of fish and invertebrates. Because of their effects on the diversity and productivity of macrofauna, these estuarine and marine ecosystems are often referred to as nurseries in numerous papers, textbooks, and government-sponsored reports (Boesch and Turner 1984, NRC 1995, Butler and Jernakoff 1999).