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Abstract

The degradation and loss of many salt marshes have adversely affected the vertebrates that reside within them. Fire has historically been a natural component of Florida’s salt marsh ecosystems, but its implementation and its value as a management tool remain poorly understood. We conducted point counts, monitored nests, and surveyed mammal occupancy in the Apalachicola River Wildlife and Environmental Area and the St. Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge in Florida’s panhandle to better understand the effects of fire on nesting birds and mammals that reside in salt marshes. Our study’s focal species were Marian’s Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris marianae), the Wakulla Seaside Sparrow (Ammodramus maritimus juncicola, the Gulf salt marsh mink (Neovison vison halilimnetes), the Clapper Rail (Rallus crepitans), and the marsh rice rat (Oryzomys palustris). In 2021, we conducted avian surveys at 96 points, deployed mammalian camera traps at 70 of those points, and conducted avian nest searching and monitoring at six study sites within each of the two focal properties. In 2022, we completed avian point counts at 81 points. The abundance of Seaside Sparrows and Clapper Rails was greater in recently burned management units compared to units that were burned more than 10 years prior or that had never been burned. Statistical support for this relationship was modest, so we recommend that these results be considered preliminary. Other factors that affected avian abundance included marsh elevation and distance from the mainland. A relative abundance index for marsh rice rats was weakly, but positively, associated with the abundances of all three focal bird species, which suggests that this important nest predator occupies similar areas of the marsh.

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