Trophic Dynamics of Created Salt Marshes in Coastal Alabama (2006-2007)

Salt marshes provide ecosystem services that include critical habitat for commercially important crustaceans and fish, and energy export to adjacent estuarine habitats. The goal of most marsh restoration efforts along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts has been to replant the smooth cordgrass, Spartina alterniflora, and monitor its subsequent re-establishment. The assumption has been that some approximation of natural ecosystem function will follow the provision of structure at the water’s edge. This assumption generally has not been corroborated. The primary purpose of the data set provided here is to compare assemblages of mobile epifauna utilizing created salt marshes of different ages and restoration status in the northern Gulf of Mexico. As created marshes age, we predict that the assemblages utilizing them will converge on those of natural systems. We assessed community structure using flume traps at three created marshes in Coastal Alabama. We began sampling two, 20-year-old sites in June 2006: the created 2-ha Estuarium “Living” Marsh adjacent to the Dauphin Island Sea Lab (DISL), and an altered 2-ha site, Airport Marsh, located 8 km west of the Estuarium Marsh on Dauphin Island. In December 2006 we incorporated two, 2-ha areas of a created salt marsh located at the mouth of Fowl River. The Fowl River site was planted in March 2004. We concluded flume sampling at all sites in October 2007. This data set is one component of a larger, ongoing project designed to integrate assessments of habitat usage by mobile epifauna and the development of key trophic interactions within Spartina-dominated salt marshes of different ages and restoration status.