Comparison of Breder Traps and Seines Used to Sample Marsh Nekton

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-1-1999

Department

Marine Science

Abstract

Effective sampling of marsh nekton is difficult due to the organisms' use of the marsh-edge and/or marsh surface during high tide. Quantitative sampling approaches currently used are expensive, require permanent structures, and can require a considerable number of personnel for implementation. Our purpose was to assess the use of Breder traps (T) as a sampling method capable of documenting relative abundance of nekton. We sampled marsh habitats (within 1 m of marsh grass) in five bayous using seines at high (HS) and low (LS) tide and compared them with rank abundance and similarity data. Seining (n = 3/tidal stage) was conducted adjacent to each set of traps (n = 4) which were retrieved at low tide. Four transient (Engraulidae, 34.7%; Penaeidae, 12.4%; Portunidae, 6.8%; and Sciaenidae, 1.2%) and four resident families (Palaemonidae, 28.1%; Fundulidae, 9.2%; Atherinidae, 3.2%; and Gobiidae, 1.1%) met our requirements (greater than or equal to 1% of all nekton captured) for analysis and accounted for 96.6% of the total nekton captured. High seine and LS collections were most similar (Jaccard's index, 0.58), followed by T and LS (0.46) and HS and T (0.37). Transient families were captured in greatest numbers and higher rank with seines (LS > NS > T) while two resident families (Palaemonidae and Fundulidae) dominated T collections (T > LS > NS). Our data suggests that Breder traps adequately sample resident nekton which use the marsh surface and should be considered in future studies which require only CPUE estimates of abundance.

Publication Title

Estuaries

Volume

22

Issue

2A

First Page

224

Last Page

230

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