Checklist of the Fishes Documented from the Zeke's Island and Masonboro Island Components of the North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve

摘要

The mission of the NCNERR is 'to promote, through research, education and example, informed management and stewardship of the nations estuarine and coastal habitats' (North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve and U.S. Dept. of Commerce 1998). The NCNERR research program goals are to expand scientific knowledge of estuarine processes by addressing significant gaps in the understanding of dynamic change within estuarine ecosystems; and to improve the ability of resource managers to detect, quantify, and predict both short- and long-term changes in the health and viability of estuarine ecosystems (North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve 1998). Increasing our scientific understanding obviously involves conducting a wide variety of basic and applied research. As part of that effort and in preparation for the site profile required by the NERR program, the NCNERR is conducting basic biological inventories of the biota in and near the four NERR components. This checklist of fishes in two Reserve components represents our first major product in that area. We intend that this base line data will document the Reserves ichthyofauna and will also serve as a benchmark against which changes can be judged. North Carolina hosts one of the most diverse marine/estuarine fish faunas in the United States. Over 730 marine species have been documented from the freshwater/estuarine interface offshore to the 200 m isobath (S.W. Ross, unpubl. data), which is more species than any other East or Gulf coast state, excluding Florida. Such diversity is explained by: (1) North Carolinas location at a moderate (temperate) latitude, (2) North Carolina straddles a major zoogeographic boundary (Cape Hatteras), (3) Gulf Stream influence facilitates an extensive tropical/sub-tropical marine community, (4) extensive habitat diversity that supports faunal diversity.