Tracking marsh restoration using macrobenthic metr

Authors: Heather J Ferguson Chet F Rakocinski

Publish Date: 2008/03/21

Volume: 16, Issue: 4, Pages: 277-289

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Abstract

Attempts to understand ecological processes within restored saltmarsh ecosystems have increased dramatically in recent years and it is now generally agreed that marsh restoration success should be gauged relative to the recovery of ecosystem function Studies of macroinfaunal recovery in created marshes typically employ faunistic metrics to examine colonization and succession Few studies employ macrobenthic functional metrics Here we present an evaluative approach employing macrobenthic functional metrics for use in marsh restoration studies in the context of a comparative study To illustrate the approach a fourway comparison of functional and faunistic metrics is made between intertidal Spartina and adjacent subtidal habitats and between a set of created marsh islands that have been established for 27 years and a set of nearby natural marsh islands within Davis Bay Mississippi The suite of functional metrics used in this study characterizes the macroinfauna in terms of biological production based and community maturity based attributes Several productionbased attributes eg production potential normalized biomass size spectrum NBSS intercept residuals total abundance differed between habitats and between created and natural sites and community maturity based attributes eg mean size NBSS slope faunal turnover rate differed between habitats Of the functional metrics NBSS intercept residuals were most effective for discerning created and natural sites followed by production potential and total abundance Of the faunistic metrics faunal diversity and dominance did not differ between created and natural sites however evenness was higher at the created site Diversity and evenness differed significantly between habitats and dominance almost differed between habitats Community structure Bray–Curtis similarity differed between habitats and between created and natural marshes This study illustrates how macrobenthic functional metrics can be practical and informative for tracking marsh restoration success Functional metrics deliver additional insights and appear to be more effective than faunistic metrics Not only do these functional metrics fulfill the need to understand the role of benthic processes within the context of marsh restoration they can be related appropriately to other aspects of ecosystem functionThis paper presents research conducted by HJ Ferguson in fulfillment of her MS degree in the Department of Coastal Sciences from the University of Southern Mississippi While conducting her research HJ Ferguson was supported by the Mississippi Tidelands Public Trust Fund funded through the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources Contract No FY040617 This work was also supported by a grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency’s US EPA Science to Achieve Results STAR Estuarine and Great Lakes EaGLe program through funding to the Consortium for Estuarine Ecoindicator Research for the Gulf of Mexico CEERGOM US EPA Agreement 329 R829458010 Although the research was partly supported by the US EPA it has not been subjected to the agency’s required peer and policy review and therefore does not necessarily reflect the views of the agency and no official endorsement should be inferred We thank P Biber and SE LeCroy for their guidance and support as MS committee members We also thank those who assisted with fieldwork P Biber BH Comyns M Partyka and MS Peterson Assistance in obtaining sediment data was provided by the Geology Section of the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Research Laboratory We thank the following people for help and support ranging from taxonomic assistance to administrative support JD Caldwell J Campbell A GuidryStricklin A Kennedy J McCelland J McDonald H Newby T McIllwain A Russell N Sharp S Turner and K VanderKooy

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