Epibenthic faunal densities sampled from within Artificial Seagrass Units (ASU) in Back Sound, NC from June to October 2018

To parse the ecological effects of habitat area and patchiness on faunal community structure and dynamics of estuarine nekton, we employed artificial seagrass unit (ASU) landscapes at a scale relevant to habitat fidelity of common fish and macroinvertebrates in our temperate study system, Back Sound, NC. These ASU landscapes were designed along orthogonal axes of artificial seagrass area (i.e., percent cover of each landscape = 10-60 percent) and fragmentation per se (i.e., percolation probability; 0.1-0.59) to delineate their independent and interactive effects on seagrass fish and macroinvertebrate communities. To examine potential differences among faunal responses to habitat configuration within structured habitat (i.e., artificial seagrass) versus matrix habitat (i.e., sand/mudflat) within the borders of the landscape footprint, fish densities (catch per unit effort; CPUE) were sampled with baited minnow traps at three locations within each landscape from June to October 2018. Faunal densities were sampled within the largest ASU patch of each landscape (“largest patch”) and at two locations within the matrix: 1-meter away from the largest patch ("near-patch") and bisecting the largest interpatch distance ("interpatch"). Interpatch samples were not taken in landscapes with 0.59 percolation probability, as they only had one patch. Minnow trap samples were collected by Drs. F. Joel Fodrie and Amy H. Yarnall for the Estuarine Ecology Laboratory of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Institute of Marine Sciences.