Spatial and temporal patterns of nekton communities in different subhabitats of Maritime Canadian salt marshes

Spatial and temporal patterns of nekton communities in different subhabitats of Maritime Canadian salt marshes | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Spatial and temporal patterns of nekton communities in different subhabitats of Maritime Canadian salt marshes Kiana C Endresz, Elizabeth MT Bateman, Myriam A Barbeau This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6305930/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 30 Sep, 2025 Read the published version in Estuaries and Coasts → Version 1 posted 5 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Salt marshes are composed of a mosaic of subhabitats including intertidal creeks, the marsh platform, and salt pools. During tidal inundation, these subhabitats function together to provide habitat to nekton (fish and crustaceans). We determined nekton community compositions and spatiotemporal scales of variation between two biophysical regions with contrasting tidal regimes in Maritime Canada, on a seasonal basis (April‒November) in 2022‒2023. Bay of Fundy salt marshes with their megatides have higher marsh platform elevations and lower inundation times, compared to Northumberland Strait salt marshes with their microtides. The nekton community was speciose with a distinct composition between regions (accounting for up to ~40% of the variation) mostly reflecting different dominating species (Fundulus heteroclitus, Microgadus tomcod, sticklebacks, and Crangon septemspinosa) and varied seasonally (accounting for ~20% of the variation) reflecting transient and resident strategies. Subhabitat (in a separate presence-absence PERMANOVA) also accounted for a large portion of the compositional variation (~30%). Notably, creek and platform nekton communities differed regionally, while salt pool communities were more similar. Identifying community structure in salt marsh subhabitats across seasons enhances the understanding of nekton habitat function of this ecosystem in Maritime Canada. Intertidal creek Marsh platform Nekton Salt marshecology Salt pool Tidal regime Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Full Text Supplementary Files Supplementarymaterials.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 30 Sep, 2025 Read the published version in Estuaries and Coasts → Version 1 posted Reviewers agreed at journal 28 Mar, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 27 Mar, 2025 Editor invited by journal 26 Mar, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 25 Mar, 2025 First submitted to journal 25 Mar, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6305930","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":434974394,"identity":"06038356-c185-49ab-8076-f78015fdb849","order_by":0,"name":"Kiana C Endresz","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA30lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACCWYY6wCIqGBgMCBRyxlitMBZIC2MbURokWxnfvbgB4NNHt/tw4c//px3OM+cgfnhB3xapJnZzA17GNKKJc+lpUlIbjtcbNnAZiyBT4scM4OZBA/D4cQNZ3jMGAy3ARkHeBgIaGH/JvmH4T9QC//nD4lzwFqYf+B3GI+ZNA/DAZAtDBIHG8Ba2PDaItnMUyYtY5CcOPMMm5lkw7H0xJ3NbGYW+LRInD++TfJNhV1i3xnmxx9/1FgnbmdvfnwDnxYIQIkLZlyqRsEoGAWjYBQQDQCpj0aAUAc/5AAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0004-9540-5381","institution":"University of New Brunswick - Fredericton Campus: University of New Brunswick","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Kiana","middleName":"C","lastName":"Endresz","suffix":""},{"id":434974395,"identity":"ad282211-69fd-4883-a7e5-322c5317f833","order_by":1,"name":"Elizabeth MT Bateman","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Acadia University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Elizabeth","middleName":"MT","lastName":"Bateman","suffix":""},{"id":434974396,"identity":"e8dfdd5e-f0cb-49c6-ac66-d31c663ac84c","order_by":2,"name":"Myriam A Barbeau","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of New Brunswick - Fredericton Campus: University of New Brunswick","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Myriam","middleName":"A","lastName":"Barbeau","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-03-25 17:15:27","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6305930/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6305930/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-025-01615-z","type":"published","date":"2025-09-30T15:58:01+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":80637663,"identity":"500770ff-4f61-4ad4-b822-c90a59389558","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-04-15 12:44:05","extension":"png","order_by":1,"title":"Figure 1","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":1356920,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003ea) Map of Maritime Canada indicating Bay of Fundy and Northumberland Strait (study area in the rectangle with dotted line), and b) closer view of salt marshes sampled in 2022‒2023; circles are Bay of Fundy sites (Au = Aulac, WP = Wood Point, DF = Daniels Flats) and stars are Northumberland Strait sites (BV = Baie Verte, CJ = Cape Jourimain, FC = Fox Creek). Base maps from ArcGIS Pro, 21 January 2025\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Figure1Map.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6305930/v1/bb83298238fc4ef171e641d5.png"},{"id":80636249,"identity":"2a5ecb5a-b787-48cf-8c80-51a1bee774d2","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-04-15 12:28:05","extension":"png","order_by":2,"title":"Figure 2","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":466785,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eDensity of the most common nekton species captured in three subhabitats in Bay of Fundy and Northumberland Strait salt marshes over three periods in 2022‒2023. Three replicate sites sampled in each region over four rounds (April and May [spring], June [summer], November [fall]) in each year. Densities were averaged over 2 fyke nets (creeks), 3 seine hauls (platform), and 3‒4 minnow traps (salt pools) for each Year-Region-Round-Subhabitat-Site combination (n = 12 for spring, n = 6 for summer and for fall), prior to 4th 966 root transformation for graphing. Note: the April 2022 round of Northumberland Strait creeks was omitted from the graph due to extraordinarily high sand shrimp densities (71783±50610 individuals per sample) captured at two sites. In box plots, white circle and thick horizontal bar are mean and median, respectively; lower and upper box edges are 25th and 75th 970 quartiles, respectively; whiskers are 1.5 971 x interquartile range, and black dots are values outside this range\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Figure2Boxplot.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6305930/v1/7e0d5941736a9a52f6a4e3cd.png"},{"id":80636890,"identity":"f3ce4ef1-df73-42fe-acf6-ffcf4f46f6b4","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-04-15 12:36:05","extension":"png","order_by":3,"title":"Figure 3","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":652686,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003enMDS graphs for nekton community in a) creeks, b) marsh platforms, and c) salt pools in Bay of Fundy and Northumberland Strait salt marshes captured during 3 periods in 2022–2023. Spring includes two rounds (April and May); summer and fall refer to June and November, respectively. “Alosa spp.” are alewives (Alosa pseudoharengus) and blueback herrings (A. aestivalis), captured as juveniles and difficult to differentiate in the field. In c), points in the gray dashed circle are empty minnow traps. A point represents community composition (4th 978 root transformed) averaged per Year-Region-Round-Site combinations. Adjacent vector diagrams represent Pearson correlations (r) between a taxon and nMDS axes; a given taxon vector shows direction of increased density across the corresponding nMDS graph. Circle surrounding vectors indicates maximum vector length (r =1 if parallel to one of the nMDS axes); only correlations with r \u0026gt; 0.2 with at least one nMDS axis shown.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Figure3nMDSRegions.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6305930/v1/58a0b039d16248552f4a4bba.png"},{"id":80636889,"identity":"91085ecd-d2ea-4b87-8502-80fbb1d9fcd3","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-04-15 12:36:05","extension":"png","order_by":4,"title":"Figure 4","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":378139,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003enMDS graph for nekton communities in a) Bay of Fundy and b) Northumberland Strait, captured in creeks, marsh platforms, and salt pools in 2022–2023. A point represents community composition (transformed to presence-absence of species) averaged per Year-Region-Round-Subhabitat-Site combinations. Alosa spp. are alewives (Alosa pseudoharengus) and blueback herring (A. aestivalis). Points within the gray dashed circle represent empty seine hauls from Daniels Flats (Bay of Fundy site) in November 2023,or minnow traps. See Fig. 2 caption for explanation of sampling Periods and vector diagrams\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Figure4nMDSSubhabitatCommunities.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6305930/v1/43a758191a9c0d8dd1373f39.png"},{"id":80636260,"identity":"2d41477c-de69-4a49-834a-5f8f269ddeaa","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-04-15 12:28:06","extension":"png","order_by":5,"title":"Figure 5","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":3137947,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eHeatmap showing average presence-absence of nekton taxa captured in three subhabitats in Bay of Fundy and Northumberland Strait salt marshes over three periods (April and May [spring], June [summer], November [fall]) in 2022‒2023. A value of 1 (black) represents consistently present, 0 (white) consistently absent, and shades of grey are in between. Averaged over 2 fyke nets (creeks), 3 seine hauls (platform) or 3‒4 minnow traps (salt pools) per sampling round per site, and over 3 replicate sites per region (n = 6‒24)\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Figure5HeatmapSubhabitatEndreszetal.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6305930/v1/156fd04d5ca3d8743bfd2ed1.png"},{"id":92883891,"identity":"96543662-7591-46b5-8c75-f47123ea8100","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-06 16:10:28","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":3757620,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Spatialandtemporalpatternsofnektoncommunities.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6305930/v1_covered_e0dceec8-ef4b-40da-870d-6c0dbad1efe8.pdf"},{"id":80636262,"identity":"45c80ffa-bfef-48b4-8fac-8821f7cd3b1e","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-04-15 12:28:06","extension":"pdf","order_by":10,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":10189087,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Supplementarymaterials.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6305930/v1/dfcc67c769a2f5ccf1b5012e.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"","formattedTitle":"Spatial and temporal patterns of nekton communities in different subhabitats of Maritime Canadian salt marshes","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":true,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"estuaries-and-coasts","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"esco","sideBox":"Learn more about [Estuaries and Coasts](https://www.springer.com/journal/12237)","snPcode":"12237","submissionUrl":"https://www.editorialmanager.com/esco/","title":"Estuaries and Coasts","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"Intertidal creek, Marsh platform, Nekton, Salt marshecology, Salt pool, Tidal regime","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6305930/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6305930/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Salt marshes are composed of a mosaic of subhabitats including intertidal creeks, the marsh platform, and salt pools. During tidal inundation, these subhabitats function together to provide habitat to nekton (fish and crustaceans). We determined nekton community compositions and spatiotemporal scales of variation between two biophysical regions with contrasting tidal regimes in Maritime Canada, on a seasonal basis (April‒November) in 2022‒2023. Bay of Fundy salt marshes with their megatides have higher marsh platform elevations and lower inundation times, compared to Northumberland Strait salt marshes with their microtides. The nekton community was speciose with a distinct composition between regions (accounting for up to ~40% of the variation) mostly reflecting different dominating species (Fundulus heteroclitus, Microgadus tomcod, sticklebacks, and Crangon septemspinosa) and varied seasonally (accounting for ~20% of the variation) reflecting transient and resident strategies. Subhabitat (in a separate presence-absence PERMANOVA) also accounted for a large portion of the compositional variation (~30%). Notably, creek and platform nekton communities differed regionally, while salt pool communities were more similar. Identifying community structure in salt marsh subhabitats across seasons enhances the understanding of nekton habitat function of this ecosystem in Maritime Canada.","manuscriptTitle":"Spatial and temporal patterns of nekton communities in different subhabitats of Maritime Canadian salt marshes","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-04-15 12:28:01","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6305930/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"","date":"2025-03-28T11:16:45+00:00","index":0,"fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2025-03-27T17:36:23+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvited","content":"Estuaries and Coasts","date":"2025-03-26T21:37:51+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2025-03-25T18:58:13+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Estuaries and Coasts","date":"2025-03-25T13:14:30+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"estuaries-and-coasts","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"esco","sideBox":"Learn more about [Estuaries and Coasts](https://www.springer.com/journal/12237)","snPcode":"12237","submissionUrl":"https://www.editorialmanager.com/esco/","title":"Estuaries and Coasts","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"124f625f-9a17-4fb6-89c7-24e6a70ae0f3","owner":[],"postedDate":"April 15th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"published-in-journal","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-10-06T16:03:49+00:00","versionOfRecord":{"articleIdentity":"rs-6305930","link":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-025-01615-z","journal":{"identity":"estuaries-and-coasts","isVorOnly":false,"title":"Estuaries and Coasts"},"publishedOn":"2025-09-30 15:58:01","publishedOnDateReadable":"September 30th, 2025"},"versionCreatedAt":"2025-04-15 12:28:01","video":"","vorDoi":"10.1007/s12237-025-01615-z","vorDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-025-01615-z","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6305930","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6305930","identity":"rs-6305930","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}