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Fish assemblages across a vegetation gradient in a restoring tidal freshwater wetland: diets and potential for resource competition

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Abstract

Marsh habitats have been the focus of recent worldwide restoration efforts due to their degradation and destruction as a result of human development. We assessed fish resource use at a naturally restoring marsh (Liberty Island, California, USA) by comparing diet composition, stomach fullness, normalized stomach weight, and diet overlap across a vegetation gradient. Fish were collected using gill nets and fyke nets at six sites during spring 2010, summer 2011 and winter 2012. We analyzed 392 stomachs from the eleven most abundant species collected. Prey composition and biomass varied seasonally for all fish species, but there were no notable differences across sites or seasons for stomach fullness or normalized stomach weight for most fish species. Results from non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) and two-way analysis of similarities (ANOSIM) indicated minimal diet overlap between species (R = 0.633, p = 0.001) and seasons (R = 0.413, p = 0.001). Seasonal habitat and resource use across the vegetation gradient was species-specific. Small but significant spatial diet differences were detected for inland silverside, striped bass and bigscale logperch. Delta smelt exhibited seasonal diet differences by shifting from chironomids and zooplankton during spring, to amphipods and zooplankton during winter. More generally, fish maintained stomach fullness across all sites and seasons while maintaining minimal dietary overlap. Our study emphasizes the importance of tidal marshes as feeding habitat for several fish species, including the endangered delta smelt.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank K. Olsen, D. Gewant, C. Wepking, J. Emerson, J. Adams, E. Dexter and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of Stockton, California for their assistance in the field, as well as L. Smith and C. Simenstad for coordinating field and sampling logistics. Additional thanks to J. Emerson, J. Cordell and C. Simenstad for assistance in prey identification. This research was approved by Washington State University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC # 03997–001 and 03997–002). Funding was provided by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grant # 58072166 to S. Bollens and National Science Foundation GK-12 Program grant # 58072128 to G. Rollwagen-Bollens and S. Bollens.

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  1. School of the Environment, Washington State University, 14204 NE Salmon Creek Avenue, Vancouver, WA, 98686-9600, USA

    Sarah N. Whitley & Stephen M. Bollens

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Correspondence to Sarah N. Whitley.

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Whitley, S.N., Bollens, S.M. Fish assemblages across a vegetation gradient in a restoring tidal freshwater wetland: diets and potential for resource competition. Environ Biol Fish 97, 659–674 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-013-0168-9

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