gonads for maturity stage. The location of the fish with mature (i.e. ready-to-spawn) gonads can be inferred as a spawning location. Pelagic eggs are buoyant or semi-buoyant and will be subject to the currents and gradients at the level of the water column in which they were released. Plankton surveys at different depths above the spawning grounds of a species can be used to parcel out where in the water column the eggs have been released. Data on the water currents and environmental gradients at the same depths as the pelagic eggs can be incorporated into circulation models and used to calculate likely dispersal patterns for the eggs and subsequent larvae. Information on the duration of larval development (i.e. the number of days it takes for an individual to develop into each larval life stage) can indicate how long the species remains in the water column and the distance the species may travel once it has reached a motile life stage instead of passively drifting. The knowledge of such larval movement capability can inform the likelihood that areas represent nursery habitats. Other relevant information for identifying elusive nursery grounds is the presence or absence of appropriate prey for settling larvae and young juveniles, the presence or absence of predators, and the preferred environmental thresholds (temperature, salinity, etc.). Habitats that do not contain the properties necessary to support a juvenile of the given species are not likely to be nursery habitats, even if models of egg and larval dispersal indicate the possibility of settlement in those areas. Bibliography Beck, M. W., Heck Jr, K. L., Able, K. W., Childers, D. L., Eggleston, D. B., Gillanders, B. M., ... & Orth, R. J. (2001). The identification, conservation, and management of estuarine and marine nurseries for fish and invertebrates: a better understanding of the habitats that serve as nurseries for marine species and the factors that create site-specific variability in nursery quality will improve conservation and management of these areas. Bioscience, 51(8), 633–641. Bradbury, I.R., Snelgrove, P.V.R., 2001. Contrasting larval transport in demersal fish and benthic invertebrates: The roles of behaviour and advective processes in determining spatial pattern. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 58, 811–823. Hoagstrom, C.W., Turner, T.F., 2015. Recruitment ecology of pelagic-broadcast spawning minnows: Paradigms from the ocean advance science and conservation of an imperilled freshwater fauna. Fish and Fisheries 16, 282–299. Pepin, P., Helbig, J.A., 1997. Distribution and