By monitoring weekly for 3 months with Centers for Disease Control (CDC) light traps baited with carbon dioxide (CO2) and light, 12 species of mosquitoes were collected from salt-marsh areas in Topsail Island, North Carolina: Aedes vexans, Anopheles atropos, An. bradleyi, An. crucians, An. punctipennis, Culex pipiens, Cx. restrans, Cx. salinarius, Ochlerotatus sollicitans, Oc. taeniorhynchus, O...

Secondary succession plays a critical role in driving community structure in natural communities, yet how succession dynamics vary with environmental context is generally unknown. We examined the importance of seedling and vegetative recruitment in the secondary succession of coastal marsh vegetation across a landscape-scale environmental stress gradient. Replicate bare patches were initiated i...

Changes in freshwater inflow can cause changes in the distribution and diversity of marsh vegetation in estuarine habitats. In the fall of 2002 bankside vegetation was surveyed along the 24 km length of the Altamaha River estuary (n= 14 sites). Sites were quantified for multiple plant and edaphic parameters, including plant density, height, and tiller diameter. In this paper we present the char...

Although a great deal of research has focused on the effects of nutrient supply on plant competition, few studies have explored how these processes interact with nonresource factors to determine community-level patterns. This study examined how resource competition interacts with physical stress to structure salt-marsh plant communities across a natural gradient in tidal stress. First, nutrient...

The mummichog, Fundulus heteroclitus, is one of the most abundant macrofaunal components of salt marsh ecosystems along the east coast of the United States. During April–November 1998, we determined the habitat use and movement patterns of young-of-the-year (YOY) and adult mummichogs in a restored marsh, formerly a salt hay farm, and an adjacent creek in order to expand our understanding of the...

Parasites are well-known to alter the behavior of their hosts, but there is still a paucity of knowledge about how parasites modify the behavior of many ecologically influential host species. I studied the keystone grazer, the salt marsh periwinkle (Littoraria irrorata), to determine the influence of infection by the digenetic trematode, Parorchis acanthus, on its grazing behavior. Comparative ...

Salt marshes contribute to coastal protection by attenuating waves and reducing flow velocities. Nevertheless, salt are threatened rising sea levels. In order keep pace with levels, need grow vertically sediment input. Although major processes contributing deposition in known, there is still a lack of understanding the influence canopy height biomass on suspended concentration spatial scale bey...

Shifts in ecosystem structure have been observed over recent decades as woody plants encroach upon grasslands and wetlands globally. The migration of mangrove forests into salt marsh ecosystems is one such shift which could have important implications for global 'blue carbon' stocks. To date, attempts to quantify changes in ecosystem function are essentially constrained to climate-mediated puls...