ABSTRACT
Fish communities of southern forested wetlands were first characterized by William Bartram in 1791. The Mississippi Basin, the Appalachians, and near-shore waters of the continental shelf are important conduits of fish dispersal and adaptive radiation, so the fish fauna of the Southeast is extremely rich. Fish species richness is high in bottomland hardwood systems and some mangrove forests. Fish communities in wetlands exhibit log-normal patterns of species abundance. Two or three species are numerically dominant, several species are extremely rare, and the majority of species are intermediate in abundance. Most wetland fish are moderately tolerant of degraded water quality. Collectively, wetland fish spawn throughout most of the year, principally during spring and summer. Most wetland fish are littoral spawners, and lateral movement of the “aquatic-terrestrial transition zone” during flooding provides expanded habitat for reproduction.
