KISHKKV HI I.I.K TIN. VOL SI. NO. A 



700 



600 



<L> 



-c 500 

 i/i 



il 



400 

 d 



300 



% 200 



100 







DJ FMAMJ J 

 Month 



n — i — i — r 

 A 5 O N 



Fli.iKK 1. — : Seasonal patterns of fish abundance and species rich- 

 ness at four seagrass sites in Apalachee Bay. Fla. Station F- 1 1 I mean 

 macrophyte hiomass =9.3 g dry wt/nr; F-12 (141 g dry wt/nr); E-10 

 (215 g dry wt/nr); E-12 (.'i20 g dry wt/m -'). 



May to September, and non-pinfish abundance was 

 significantly correlated with macrophyte biomass 

 from June to September. Curiously, with all three 

 fish categories, correlation coefficients gradually 

 changed from negative in January to positive in the 

 summer and fall when fishes and macrophytes were 

 most abundant, and back to insignificant in Decem- 

 ber (Table 3). 



Seasonality of fishes in Apalachee Bay was also a 

 function of water temperature (Fig. 2) at the three 

 vegetated sites. The correlation was strongest at sta- 

 tion E-12 (r= 0.857; F= 24.79; P< 0.001) but was 

 also significant at stations F-12 (r= 0.717; F— 9.51; 



500 

 ro 

 o °^400 



5s 



a 

 o 



2 



5 300 



5s 



I- 



oi200 

 100 



DJ FMAMJ JASON 

 Month 



FlUl'RE 2. — Seasonal patterns in water temperature I mean and 

 rangel and seagrass biomass at tour sites in Apalachee Bay. Kla. 



TABLE 3. — Summary of statistics from regression analyses for abun- 

 dance of fishes tested as a function of macrophyte biomass at four 

 seagrass stations in Apalachee Bay, Fla. R values are Pearson cor- 

 relation coefficients, with significance indicated; F values are for 

 tests of regression significance using analysis of variance; n equals 4 

 for all regressions. 



P< 0.01) and E-10 (r = 0.611;F= 5.29;P< 0.05). 

 The relationship was not observed at the un- 

 vegetated site (r = -0.165; F = 0.251; P > 0.10) 



840 



