Abstract
Restoration of 4049 ha of tidal wetlands was required to offset nekton losses at a power facility located on Delaware Bay, USA. Vegetation coverage, the permitted criterion for success, was compared by meta-analysis to restoration trajectories for abundance and growth of dominant nekton during the same 17-year period at two reference and five restoration sites. Mean catch per unit effort (CPUE), at both upper Bay (former Phragmites australis dominated sites) and lower Bay (former salt hay farms), were generally indistinguishable from those of the reference sites, and Hedge’s d for all sites suggested that numbers of individuals at restored locations did not differ significantly from those at the reference sites. Mean length distributions of dominant nekton in the upper Bay, however, were negative for all restoration sites combined by the end of the study. Although growth of nekton at the lower Bay restoration sites was indistinguishable from reference sites, the grand mean length for nekton measured at all sites in the Bay was negative suggesting that nekton growth at the formerly Phragmites-dominated sites failed to meet the restoration goals by the end of the study period. Thus, vegetation success criteria may not necessarily reflect recovery of animal related success criteria.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Able KW, Fahay MP (1998) The first year in the life of estuarine fishes in the Middle Atlantic Bight. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick
Able KW, Hagen SM (2000) Effects of common reed (Phragmites australis) invasion on marsh surface macrofaunal: responses of fishes and decapod crustaceans. Estuaries 23:633–646
Able KW, Hagen SM, Brown SA (2003) Mechanisms of marsh habitat alteration due to Phragmites: response of young-of-year mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus) to treatment for Phragmites removal. Estuaries 26:484–494
Able KW, Grothues TM, Hagan SM, Kimbal ME, Nemerson DM, Taghon GL (2008) Long-term response of fishes and other fauna to restoration of former salt hay farms: multiple measures of restoration success. Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries 18:65–97
Aronson J, Vallejo R (eds) (2006) Restoration ecology. Blackwell Publishing, Boston
Balletto JH, Heimbuch MV, Mahoney HJ (2005) Delaware Bay salt marsh restoration: mitigation for a power plant cooling water system in New Jersey, USA. Ecological Engineering 25:204–213
Boesch DF, Turner RE (1984) Dependence of fishery species on salt marshes: the role of food and refuge. Estuaries 7:460–468
Cairns J Jr (1995) Ecosocietal restoration: Reestablishing humanity’s relationship with natural systems. Environment 37:4–33
Cairns J Jr, Dickson KL, Herricks EE (1975) Recovery and restoration of damaged ecosystems. University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville
Childers DL, Day JW Jr, McKellar HN Jr (2000) Twenty more years of marsh and estuarine flux studies: revisiting Nixon. In: Weinstein MP, Kreeger DA (eds) Concepts and controversies in tidal marsh ecology. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, pp 391–424
Cooper H (1998) Synthesizing research: a guide for literature reviews, 3rd edn. Sage, Thousand Oaks
Craft C, Reader J, Sacco JN, Broome SW (1999) Twenty-five years of ecosystem development of constructed Spartina alterniflora (Loisel) marshes. Ecological Applications 9:1404–1419
Deegan LA, Hughes JE, Rountree RA (2000) Salt marsh ecosystem support of marine transient species. In: Weinstein MP, Kreeger DA (eds) Concepts and controversies in tidal marsh ecology. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, pp 333–368
Dibble KL, Meyerson LA (2012) Tidal flushing restores the physiological condition of fish residing in degraded salt marshes. PlosOne 7:1–16
Estuary Enhancement Program (EEP) (2015) Public Service Electric & Gas, Biological Monitoring Report, 572 pp
French PW (2005) Managed realignment—the developing story of a comparatively new approach to soft engineering. Estuarine Coastal and Shelf. Science 67:409–423
Frisk MG, Miller TJ, Latour RJ et al (2011) Assessing biomass gains from marsh restoration in Delaware Bay using Ecopath with Ecosim. Ecological Modeling 222:190–200
Grothues TM, Able KW (2003a) Response of juvenile fish assemblages in tidal salt marsh creeks treated for Phragmites removal. Estuaries 26(2B):563–573
Grothues TM, Able KW (2003b) Discerning vegetation and environmental correlates with subtidal marsh fish assemblage dynamics during Phragmites eradication efforts: interannual trend measures. Estuaries 26(2B):574–586
Gurevitch J, Hedges LV (1993) Meta-analysis: combining the results of independent experiments. In: Scheiner S, Gurevitch J (eds) Design and analysis of experiments. Chapman and Hall, New York, pp 378–398
Hedges LV (1981) Distribution theory for Glass’s estimator of effect size and related estimators. Journal of Educational Statistics 6:107–128
Hedges LV, Olkin I (1985) Statistical methods for meta-analysis. Academic Press, New York
Higgs E (2012) Changing nature: novel ecosystems, intervention, and knowing when to step back. In: Weinstein MP, Turner RE (eds) Sustainability science: the emerging paradigm and the urban environment. Springer, New York, pp 383–398
Hobbs RJ, Higgs E, Harris JA (2009) Novel ecosystems: implications for conservation and restoration. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 24:599–605
Jivoff PR, Able KA (2003) Blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, response to the invasive common reed, Phragmites australis: abundance, size, sex ratio, molting frequency. Estuaries 26(2B):587–595
Kjelson MA, Johnson GN (1978) Catch efficiencies of a 6.1-meter otter trawl for estuarine fish populations. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 107:246–254
Kneib RT (1997) The role of tidal marshes in the ecology of estuarine nekton. Oceanography and Marine Biology Annual Reviews 35:163–220
Kneib RT (2003) Bioenergetic and landscape considerations for scaling expectations of nekton production from intertidal marshes. Marine Ecology Progress Series 264:279–296
Litvin SY, Weinstein MP (2003) Life history strategies of estuarine nekton: the role of marsh macrophytes, microphytobenthos and phytoplankton in the trophic spectrum. Estuaries 26(2B):553–653
Litvin SY, Weinstein MP, Sheaves M, Nagelkerken I (2018) What makes nearshore habitats primary nurseries for nekton? Revisiting the nursery role hypothesis. Estuaries and Coasts 41:1–12
McIvor CC, Odum WE (1988) Food, predation risk, and microhabitat selection in a marsh fish assemblage. Ecology 69:1341–1351
Miller JA, Simenstad CA (1997) A comparative assessment of a natural and created estuarine slough as rearing habitat for juvenile chinook and coho salmon. Estuaries 20:792–806
Minello TJ, Webb JW (1997) Use of natural and created Spartina alterniflora salt marshes by fishery species and other aquatic fauna in Galveston Bay, Texas, USA. Marine Ecology Progress Series 151:165–179
Minello TJ, Zimmerman RJ (1992) Utilization of natural and transplanted Texas salt marshes by fish and decapod crustaceans. Marine Ecology Progress Series 90:273–285
Minello TJ, Able KW, KW WMP, Hays C (2003) Salt marsh nurseries for nekton: testing hypotheses on density, growth and survival through meta-analysis. Marine Ecology Progress Series 246:39–59
Rooth JE, Stevenson JC, Cornwall JC (2003) Increased sediment accretion rates following invasion by Phragmites australis: the role of litter. Estuaries 26(2B):475–483
Rose KA, Sable S, DeAngelis DL, Yurek S, Trexler JC, Graf W, Reed DJ (2015) Proposed best modeling practices for assessing the effects of ecosystem restoration on fish. Ecological Modelling 300:12–29
Rosenberg MS, Adams DC, Gurevitch J (2000) MetaWin: Statistical software for meta-analysis, version 2.0. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland
Rozas LP, McIvor CC, Odum WE (1988) Intertidal rivulets and creek banks: Corridors between tidal creeks and marshes. Marine Ecology Progress Series 47:303–307
Saltonstall K (2002) Cryptic invasion by a non-native genotype of the common reed, Phragmites australis, into North America. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 99:2445–2449
Strange E, Galbraith H, Bickel S, Mills D, Beltman D, Lipton J (2002) Determining ecological equivalence in service-to-service scaling of salt marsh restoration. Environmental Management 29:290–300
Talley TS, Levin LA (2001) Modification of sediments and macrofaunal by an invasive marsh plant. Biological Invasions 3:51–68
Teal JM, Peterson S (2005) Restoration benefits in a watershed context. Journal of Coastal Research 40:132–140
Teal JM, Weinstein MP (2002) Ecological engineering, design, and construction considerations for marsh restorations in Delaware Bay, USA. Ecological Engineering 18:607–618
Teal JM, Weishar LL (2005) Ecological engineering, adaptive management, and restoration management in Delaware Bay salt marsh restoration. Ecological Engineering 25:304–314
Weinstein MP, Balletto JH (1999) Does the common reed, Phragmites australis reduce essential habitat for fishes? Estuaries 22(3B):793–802
Weinstein MP, Davis RW (1980) Collecting efficiency of seine and rotenone samples for tidal creeks, Cape Fear River. North Carolina. Estuaries 3:98–105
Weinstein MP, Litvin SY (2015) Macro-restoration of tidal wetlands: a whole estuary perspective. Restoration Ecology 34:27–38
Weinstein MP, Balletto JH, Teal JM, Ludwig DF (1997) Success criteria and adaptive management for a large-scale wetland restoration project. Wetlands Ecology and Management 4:111–127
Weinstein MP, Philipp KR, Goodwin P (2000a) Catastrophes, near-catastrophes and the bounds of expectation: wetland restoration on a macroscale. In: Weinstein MP, Kreeger DA (eds) Concepts and controversies in tidal marsh ecology. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dortrecht, pp 777–804
Weinstein MP, Litvin SY, Bosley KI, Fuller CM, Wainright SC (2000b) The role of tidal salt marsh as an energy source for juvenile marine transient finfishes: a stable isotope approach. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 129:797–810
Weinstein MP, Teal JM, Balletto JH, Strait KA (2001) Restoration principles emerging from one of the world’s largest tidal marsh restoration projects. Wetlands Ecology and Management 9:387–407
Weinstein MP, Litvin SY, Guida VG (2005) Consideration of habitat linkages, estuarine landscapes and the trophic spectrum in wetland restoration design. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue 40:51–63
Weinstein MP, Baird RC, Conover DO, Gros M, Keulartz J, Loomis DK, Naveh Z, Peterson SB, Reed DJ, Roe E, Swanson RL, Swart JAA, Teal JM, Turner RE, van der Windt HJ (2007) Managing coastal resources in the 21st century. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 5:43–48
Weinstein MP, Litvin SY, Guida VG (2009) Essential fish habitat and wetland restoration success: a Tier III approach to the biochemical condition of the common mummichog, Fundulus heteroclitus in common reed, Phragmites australis and smooth cordgrass, Spartina alterniflora dominated salt marshes. Estuaries and Coasts 32:1011–1022
Weinstein MP, Litvin SY, Guida VG (2010) Stable isotope and biochemical composition of white perch in a Phragmites dominated salt marsh and adjacent waters. Wetlands 30:1181–1191
Weinstein MP, Litvin SY, Frisk MG (2012) Reversing two centuries of wetland degradation: can science better inform policy and practice? In: Weinstein MP, Turner RE (eds) Sustainability science: the emerging paradigm and the urban environment. Springer, New York, pp 53–82
Weinstein MP, Litvin SY, Krebs JM (2014) Restoration ecology: ecological fidelity, restoration metrics, and a systems perspective. Ecological Engineering 65:71–87
Weishar LL, Teal JM, Hinkle R (2005a) Stream order analysis in marsh restoration on Delaware Bay. Ecological Engineering 25:252–259
Weishar LL, Teal JM, Hinkle R (2005b) Designing large scale restoration for Delaware Bay. Ecological Engineering 25:214–230
Windham, L. (1995) Effects of Phragmites australis invasion on above ground biomass and soil properties in brackish tidal marsh of the Mullica River, New Jersey Masters Thesis, Rutgers University, New Brunswick
Zedler JB (2007) Success: an unclear, subjective descriptor of restoration outcomes. Restoration Ecology 25:162–168
Acknowledgements
We thank K. Strait of the PSEG EEP for providing access to the raw data compiled during the annual EEP monitoring effort. Anonymous reviewers provided constructive comments on the draft manuscript. This project was funded by USEPA grant No. CD-962759-00 to the authors and supported by additional grants to the senior author from NOAA (Saltonstall-Kennedy, No. 86FD0109; Aquatic Nuisance Species N17RG1396); USGS State Partnership Program; New Jersey Sea Grant No. 6710-0008; NSF (NCEAS) Grant No. DEB-0072909; USEPA Grant No. X7-97280601; and the Marsh Ecology Research Program funded by the PSEG Corporation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Weinstein, M.P., Hazen, R. & Litvin, S.Y. Response of Nekton to Tidal Salt Marsh Restoration, a Meta-Analysis of Restoration Trajectories. Wetlands 39, 575–585 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-018-1106-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-018-1106-6