The influence of salinity and vegetation texture on the ecological roles of insects in tidal marshes in Louisiana

Abstract

Abstract Tidal marsh insect communities are influenced by both salinity and aspects of vegetation texture (vegetation diversity, plant density, and architectural structure). These factors affect the abundances and intra‐ and interguild interactions of these insects and should result in broad‐scale variation in the distribution and ecological functioning of tidal marsh insect communities along these gradients. However, this assumption has not been tested within Gulf Coast marshes, and the insect communities and their ecological roles are not well known. This study identifies how family‐level insect biodiversity varies by salinity and which factors are most important in affecting the distribution of insect functional feeding groups within Louisiana's coastal marshes. Insect family diversity was found to decrease as salinity increased for several indices. Vegetation texture and the underlying salinity gradient were found to be important factors affecting the distribution of free‐living sucking, stem‐boring, parasitic, and filtering functional feeding groups.

Keywords

• biodiversity
• functional feeding groups
• salt marsh
• Spartina
• vegetation texture