Walsh et a\ Juvenile fish assemblages on the southeast United States continental shelf 



261 



highly correlated with the average water column and 

 surface variables (Marancik et al., 2005). Vertical strati- 

 fication was estimated by using Simpson's stratification 

 parameter (Simpson and James, 1985), <P (joules/m'), 

 which is a measure of the resistance of water to mixing 

 (higher numbers signify higher resistance to mixing). 



Data Analyses 



Correspondence analysis (CA) and canonical correspon- 

 dence analysis (CCA) were performed by using the sta- 

 tistical package CANOCO (ter Braak and Smilauer, 

 2002). Using the cross-shelf, inshore, and offshore data 

 sets, we had seven objectives: 1) to describe the cross- 



shelf patterns in the juvenile fish assemblages; 2) to 

 identify the species associated with the assemblages 

 including the reef-associated species that contribute to 

 these assemblages; 3) to describe the relationship among 

 cross-shelf patterns in the assemblages and environ- 

 mental variables; 4) to describe the seasonal patterns 

 in the assemblages; 5) to determine the relation between 

 seasonal assemblages and environmental variables; 6) to 

 describe the along-shelf and cross-shelf patterns in the 

 inshore data set; and 7) to describe the along-shelf and 

 cross-shelf patterns in the offshore data set. 



Correspondence analysis was used to define juve- 

 nile fish assemblages and to explore the factors that 

 influence distribution of assemblages on the shelf off 



