144 



NOAA Technical Report NMFS 140 



benthic invertebrate fauna in terms of numerical den- 

 sity. Aniphipoda, in particular, contributes an over- 

 whelming majority of individuals (43%) to total fauna] 

 density, 1.5 times as many as the second dominant 

 taxon, Annelida (28%) (Table 3). Cumacea and 

 Cirripedia each contributed over 1.5% of total numeri- 

 cal density. 



Detailed analysis of this class as a whole will appear 

 below, along with the other dominant taxa, in the sec- 

 tion "Dominant Components of the Macrobenthos." 

 Figure 146, which shows the distribution of density and 

 biomass of Crustacea, however is included here so as 



not to create disorder in the phylogenetic arrangement 

 of the figures. 



Ostracoda — Because of the small size of most mem- 

 bers of this group, only a small proportion were re- 

 tained by the processing techniques used in this study. 

 Specimens in our samples were approximately 1 to 2 

 mm in length. The vast majority of ostracods inhabiting 

 the sediments of this region, however, were smaller 

 than this and as such belong to the meiofaunal realm 

 not sampled in this stud)'. Except for references to the 

 literature, our comments here pertain only to the very 

 largest species that occur in the New England region. 



