Composition and Distribution of Macrobenthic Invertebrate Fauna 



83 



GEORGES SOUTHERN GEORGES SOUTHERN 

 SANK NEW ENGLAND SLOPE NEW ENGLAND 

 SHELF SLOPE 



GEOGRAPHIC AREA 



Figure 46 



Density and biomass of Zoantharia in each of the six geographic 

 areas. 



meters, and not found in depths greater than 500 meters 

 (Tables 11, 12; Fig. 53). 



Average biomass revealed a similar trend (Tables 13, 

 14; Fig. 53): 0.02 g/m 2 in the shallow zone and 0.01 g/ 

 m 2 or less in deeper water. 



In the depth zones where they were present their 

 incidence ranged from 1 to 4% (Table 15). 



Relation to Sediments 



Turbellarians were present in only three of the six 



major sediment types occurring in the study area. They 

 were most common in gravel, where they averaged 1.7 

 individuals/m 2 . In sand and silt-clay their average den- 

 sity was 0.2 and 0.1 /m- (Tables 16, 17; Fig. 54). 



In terms of biomass they were equally sparse (averag- 

 ing 0.01 g/m 2 ) in all three sediment types (Tables 18, 

 19; Fig. 54). 



Turbellarians were found in only 1 to 2% of the 

 samples from the three sediment types in which they 

 occurred (Table 20). 



