The short-term effects of invertebrate, Palaemonetes pugio Holthuis, and vertebrate predators, Fundulus heteroclitus Baird and Girard, on Spartina alterniflora Loisel resident metazoan assemblages were investigated experimentally in June 1993 and July 1994. Live or standing-dead S. alterniflora stems were transplanted into defaunated sand within experimental buckets in which treatment densities of P. pugio and F. heteroclitus were varied. Harpacticoid copepods were the only stem-associated faunal group affected by both shrimp and fish. The presence of P. pugio for one full tidal cycle (24 h) resulted in a significant 62% reduction in the numbers of copepod nauplii on live stems. Varying shrimp densities did not influence appreciably the effect on nauplii numbers. F. heteroclitus consumed almost 50% of the juvenile and adult harpacticoid copepods on standing-dead stems over 3 days. Stem architectural and faunal distributional differences between live and standing-dead stems resulted in ≈50% of the fauna on live stems residing on interior surfaces inaccessible to predators. The fauna resident on salt marsh vegetation represents a previously unconsidered resource for macroepibenthic predators foraging in intertidal marshes.