Matthew Kimball

I am a PhD student in the Ecology & Evolution program. My research focuses on fish utilization of intertidal salt marsh habitats. I am approaching this topic within the context of marsh restoration by examining fish utilization and movement patterns in natural and restored salt marshes in southern New Jersey. The projects I am involved with attempt to discern such patterns on multiple spatial and temporal scales in two distinct restoration habitats: Phragmites-invaded marshes and former salt hay farms. The individual projects are as follows:

1. The long term response of intertidal fish communities to restoration efforts at former salt hay farms.

Using weirs to capture fish as they leave intertidal marsh creeks on ebb tide, this project focuses on the larger spatial and temporal scales by passively collecting fish leaving intertidal marsh habitats over the entire ebb tide. This project takes place in the lower Delaware Bay and compares fish utilization of intertidal marsh habitats at multiple former salt hay farms to a natural reference marsh.

2. Intertidal fish response to Phragmites removal in upper Delaware Bay salt marshes.

This project has the same comparative purpose and follows the same approach as above, but takes place in upper Delaware Bay marshes where Phragmites has invaded much of the naturally Spartina dominated salt marshes and restoration efforts to remove Phragmites have taken place. Fish utilization patterns are compared between natural and restored marshes.

3. Tidal influences on fish habitat selection and utilization in intertidal creeks.

The intertidal creek fish assemblage is sampled several times within the ebb and flood tidal cycles (using a seine net) to examine utilization patterns on intermediate spatial and temporal scales. This research takes place in both the upper and lower bay marsh sites in the Delaware Bay (the same marshes used for the weir projects), allowing examination of patterns within both types of salt marsh restorations.

4. Evaluating fish response to Phragmites removal and Spartina restoration using underwater video technology.

To discern the effects of varying dominant marsh vegetation on smaller (fine) scale temporal and spatial movement patterns within tidal cycles, underwater video imagery is being used to examine the fish fauna of intertidal creeks in representative Phragmites dominated, Spartina dominated, and restored marshes. This project takes place in the marshes of the Hog Islands area of the Great Bay-Mullica River estuary in the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve, where extensive treatment of invasive Phragmites stands by government and private agencies has allowed the recolonization (i.e., restoration) of natural Spartina vegetation.