Succession of macrobenthos in a created salt marsh

Early succession of macrofauna was evamlned over several years In a created S p a r t ~n a alternlflora marsh located on the Newport Rlver Estuary North Carolina, USA Epifauna and infaunal community structure and conlposlt~on were compared at 2 elevations In plots planted with S alternlflora, plots left bare of vegetdt~on and vegetated plots In a nearby natural S altern~flora inarsh No significant successional differences were observed between vegetated and unvegetated sediinents in the cleated m a ~s h The earliest stages of colonization involved recruitment by opportunistic estuarine polychaetes Streblospio benedicti Capitella spp and Polydora cornuta Capitella spp dominated the macrofauna a month after marsh creation but thereafter S benedlcti was the most abundant specles Dunng the first few years the artificial marsh retained early s u c c e s ~~o n a l characteristics with S benedictl. Cap~tella spp and turbellanans accounting for 75 to 95"" of the total macrofauna F~ddler crabs common epifaunal colonists After 4 yr specles ~~c h n e s s Increased and dominance by the early colonists diminished Taxa lacklng planktonic larvae and swlmmiiig adults were particularly slow to recover In the created marsh but accounted tor over 25 of the infauna by Year 4 Ollgochaetes vvhlch compnsed 0vc.r 50% of the fauna In the natural marsh iemalned absent or rare in the artificial system throughout the study Infaundl recovery appears to be more rapid In lowei than upper marsh elevatlons Although macrofauna1 d e n s ~t ~e s and specles rlchness of sedlments in the lower created maish came to resemble those of the natural marsh within 6 mo, specles composition and faunal feeding modes dld not These observations suggest there may be signlflcant functional differences between young aitiflcial marshes and older natural marshes Consideration of the tinl~ng of marsh creatlon marsh configuiation continuity with natural marshes, seeding of taxa wlth poor dispersal, and attentlon to species h a b ~t a t requirements are recommended to accelerate infaunal colonlzat~on of created Spartina marshes