Abstract
The Tuckerton Peninsula forms a large expanse (~2,000 ha) of highly inundated Spartina alterniflora salt marsh habitat along the southern New Jersey coast. Temporal and spatial changes in emergent salt marsh vegetation were characterized in three segments (northern, central, and southern) of the peninsula as part of a larger investigation to establish this salt marsh system as a sentinel site to assess future climate change effects in New Jersey. Monthly quadrat sampling at 90 plots along 9 transects in the peninsula during the June-September period in 2011 recorded 7 species of marsh plants (Spartina alterniflora, S. patens, Distichlis spicata, Salicornia spp., Limonium carolinianum, Morus rubra, and Symphyotricum tenuifolium). Measurements collected on maximum canopy height, shoot density, and percent areal cover of the marsh plant community in the heavily ditched northern segment were compared to those of the marsh plant communities in the shoreline-altered southern segment and the less impacted central reference segment. In general, species composition was similar between segments and no significant differences were found in maximum canopy height, shoot density or percent cover for any individual species. Spartina alterniflora was the dominant species. For all species combined, maximum canopy height and shoot density were higher and percent cover lower in the heavily ditched northern segment than in the other segments. No significant differences were found between the central and shoreline-altered southern segments for any of the three variables. Changes occurring in the demographic and ecological characteristics of the emergent salt marsh habitat in the peninsula are important for understanding future habitat change in other coastal wetlands of New Jersey and the mid-Atlantic region subjected to rising sea level and inundation.