FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 85, NO. 4 



tion of the dendrogram results. Reciprocal aver- 

 aging is an eigenanalysis that ordinates both food 

 type and habitat (or size class) variables simulta- 

 neously and defines axes such that the variance of 

 the scores on each axis is maximized. The first 

 axis, therefore, represents the path of maximum 

 variance, the second axis the next greatest, and so 

 forth. This analysis was performed with ORDI- 

 FLEX (Gauch 1977). 



RESULTS 



Physical Parameters 



With the exception of April and May, tempera- 

 tures were slightly cooler at Blevins Creek than 

 at Goalders Creek (Table 2). Salinity within 

 Goalders Creek was reasonably stable consider- 

 ing its meso-oligohaline location (Table 2). Except 

 for a brief period in spring, Blevins Creek was 

 polyhaline during the period of spot residence 

 (salinity range 18-22%ci). Salinity in Goalders 

 Creek was always at least 4%o lower than Blevins 

 Creek and reached a maximum difference of 14%c 

 during April. Such variations in tidal creeks is 

 typical of the estuarine salinity gradient with dis- 

 tance from the head of the estuary (Weinstein 

 1979; Weinstein et al. 1980). There were no dis- 

 tinct salinity differences observed between either 

 creek and its adjacent shoal station. 



Temporal Abundance and 

 Distribution 



Monthly abundance and distribution patterns 

 for spot in each creek system and adjacent shoals 



are shown in Figure 2. Overall, numbers of spot 

 captured within the tidal creeks were similar, 

 2,355 versus 2,802 in Goalders and Blevins 

 Creeks, respectively. Temporal distributions of 

 spot within each locality were further compared 

 by computing creek/shoal ratios. 



Spot were not encountered during the first sam- 

 pling trip during late March 1982, but postlarvae 

 and juveniles appeared in small numbers in 

 April. At that time, spot were more abundant at 

 the shoal stations than in the creeks (creek/shoal 

 ratio of 0.28 for Goalders and 0.16 at Blevins). 

 Young-of-year spot reached their maximum 

 abundance in May, with 1,047 specimens taken 

 up-estuary at Goalders Creek and 2,110 individu- 

 als sampled from Blevins Creek. Spot at Goalders 

 Creek were then more numerous at the stations 

 within the creek (ratio 20.5), but still more preva- 

 lent on the shoal down-estuary at Blevins Creek 

 (ratio 0.52). From June to September, however, 

 spot were clearly more abundant in the creeks of 

 both systems. By the end of the investigation (Oc- 

 tober 1982) spot once again dominated the shoal 

 at Blevins Creek, but remained more abundant in 

 the creek at Goalders. 



Monthly size distributions of spot in the two 

 tidal creeks and adjacent shoals were examined 

 by dividing the samples taken at each station into 

 5 mm SL size classes and comparing their relative 

 frequencies among stations and locations. With 

 the exception of a short period during recruitment 

 (May) when more small fish were collected in 

 Goalders Creek than at the nearby shoal station, 

 none of the size-frequency comparisons differed 

 significantly (Friedman's ANOVA, P < 0.05; 

 O'Neil 1983). 



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