Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve: Mobile creek fauna data

Salt marshes are one of the most valuable ecosystems on the planet,
providing shoreline protection, carbon storage, and nursery habitat, but
face significant pressure from human activity and sea level rise.
Saltmarsh restoration strategies aim to recover ecological function and
provide resilience to rising seas, yet their effects on mobile creek fauna
(fish and decapod crustaceans) remain understudied on the North American
Pacific coast. Researchers frequently seek rapid, cost-effective tools for
studying these communities as they are effective indicators of marsh
condition. This study assessed the ecological success of salt marsh
restoration and provides insight for future monitoring efforts aiming to
capture both taxonomic and functional responses of mobile creek fauna.
Assemblages were compared across one tidally restricted marsh, one
sediment-addition restored marsh, and two natural reference marshes in
Elkhorn Slough, California, using multiple methods. In total, we detected
4,833 individuals from 14 species. The restricted marsh supported the
lowest abundance, smallest topsmelt (Atherinops affinis), and fewer
transient species, indicating reduced nursery function. In contrast, the
restored marsh closely resembled the adjacent natural marsh in community
composition and ecological attributes present, such as trophic roles and
residency patterns, and supported the highest native richness. Natural
sites also differed from one another, highlighting the need for multiple
reference sites in restoration assessments. Minnow traps provided
consistent species detection and replication, seines captured the highest
numbers of transient fish, and underwater videos detected large, elusive
species. Our data show the mobile creek faunal community differences
between natural, restored, and degraded sites in Elkhorn Slough,
California, and may help with gear selection during similar monitoring
efforts along the California coast.