The structure of the aquatic insect community associated with intertidal pools on a New Jersey salt marsh

Landlocked intertidal pools (potholes) are one of the common aquatic habitats associated with eastern North American salt-marshes. Twenty species of insects (including Culicoides spp. and larvae of Chrysops spp. and Tabanus spp. and Aedes sollicitans (Wlk.)), of which only 8 were common, occurred in the pothole habitat in New Jersey. The harshness of the physical environment incurred in the pothole habitat is largely responsible for this depauperate insect community. Spatial variation in the diversity of the insect community is best explained by differential densities of predaceous fish. Seasonal changes in insect community diversity are attributable to fluctuations in water temperature and accompanying levels of dissolved oxygen.