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Habitat utilization of marsh and adjacent submerged landscape by fish and macroinvertebrates in a Gulf of Mexico tidal oligohaline environment

Estuarine habitats are considered nursery habitats for fishes and invertebrates, but oligohaline environments are critically understudied. Using a seine net and fyke nets, we sampled Back Bay, Mississippi (USA), a low salinity estuary, once a month for a year to explore the temporal use of the marsh and adjacent submerged landscape by nekton species. We also looked at whether there is evidence of habitat preference in the most numerous nekton species. We used a novel habitat usage index (HUI) to compare seine and fyke net catches of our top 10 species, and evaluated catch size in relation to maturation size. Consequently, we noted marked differences in 48 nekton species in terms of habitat preference; observed, for our top 10 species, transient species were primarily immatures, and resident species mostly occurred in marshes with some exceptions; and detected size patterns consistent with the spawning cycle of the species in question.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:MSSTATE/oai:scholarsjunction.msstate.edu:td-7044
Date08 December 2023
CreatorsOffner, Tia
PublisherScholars Junction
Source SetsMississippi State University
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceTheses and Dissertations

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