Composition and Distribution of Macrobenthic Invertebrate Fauna 



and Rowe et al. ( 1991 ); Burns and Wigley 2 ; Wigley et al. , 

 Theroux and Wigley 4 ; Manrer and Wigley'; Theroux. et 

 al. h ; Theroux and Schmidt-Gengenback. 



Other uses to which the data have proven useful in 

 the past, as well as in the present, have been varied. 

 Included have been environmental impact statements 

 prepared by various public agencies (Dep. Interior, 

 Minerals Management Service; U.S. Army Corps of En- 

 gineers; NOAA, etc.) relating to OCS activities (e.g. oil 

 and gas exploration, mining, dredging, dumping, etc.); 

 international litigation (i.e. US/Canada Boundary 

 Case); marine sanctuary designation proposals (e.g. 

 Stellwagen Bank, Norfolk Canyon); and others. 



Several specially targeted programs initiated in the 

 latter 1970's and terminated in the mid- to late 1980's 

 have provided additional impetus for an increase in 

 attention devoted to the macrobenthos of the region. 

 During that period main studies were conducted by 

 public and private agencies and academic institutions 

 (e.g. NOAA's Northeast Monitoring and Ocean Pulse 

 Programs; the Northeast Fisheries Center's Marine Re- 

 sources Mapping, Assessment, and Prediction program 

 (Sherman, 1980); the Marine Ecosystem Analysis Pro- 

 gram (MESA) (see Pearce et al., 1981 ); the Woods Hole 

 Oceanographic Institution's Georges Bank Study program, 

 and many others). Those studies, in both inshore and 

 offshore areas, were designed to establish baselines for 

 assessing environmental quality and to monitor the im- 

 pacts of present and future activities related to oil and gas 

 exploration and production, marine mining, ocean dump- 

 ing, other waste disposal, and natural environmental 



-' Burns, B. R., and R. L. Wigley. 1970. Collection and biological 

 data pertaining to mvsids in the collection at the BCF Biological 

 Laboratory, Woods Hole. U.S. Bur. Conun. Fish. Biol. Lab. Woods 

 Hole. Mass., Lab. Ref. 70-3, 36 p. (mimeo). L'npubl. manuscript. 



3 Wigley, R L., R. B. Theroux, and H. E. Murray. 1976. Marine 

 macrobenthic invertebrate fauna of the Middle Atlantic Bight re- 

 gion. Part 1. Collection data and environmental measurements. 

 Northeast Fisheres Center, Woods Hole Lab. Ref. Doc. 7618, 34 p. 

 (mimeo). L'npubl. Manuscript. 



* Theroux. R. B., and R. L. Wigley. 1979. Collection data for U.S. 

 east coast bivalve mollusks in the Northeast Fisheries Center Speci- 

 men Reference Collection, Woods Hole. Massachusetts. Northeasl 

 Fisheries Center, Woods Hole Laboratory, National Marine Fisher- 

 ies Serv., NOAA. Northeast Fisheries Center.,Woods Hole Lab. 

 Ref. Doc. 79-29, 471 p. (mimeo). L'npubl. Manuscript. 



' Maurer, D., and R. L. Wigley. 1981. Distribution of biomass and 

 density of macrobenthic invertebrates on the continental shelf off 

 Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. National Marine Fisheries Service, 

 Northeast Fisheries Center, Woods Hole Labi irat< iry, NOAA, Woods 

 Hole Lab. Ref. Doc. 81-15, 97 p. (mimeo). L'npubl. manuscript. 



6 Theroux, R. B., R. L. Wigley, and H. E. Murray. 1982. Marine 

 mai robenthic invertebrate fauna of the New England Region: Collec- 

 tion data and environmental measurements. Nat. Mar. Fish. Serv., NOAA, 

 Northeast Fish. Center, Woods Hole Lab. Ref.Dor 82-40, MARMAP 

 Contrib. MD/NEFC 82-67. 74 p. (mimeo). Lnpubl. Manuscript. 



' Theroux, R. B., andj. Schmidt-Gengenbach. 1984. Collection data 

 and environmental measurements for U.S. east coast Cumace.i (Ar- 

 thropoda, Crustacea) in the Northeast Fisheries Center Specimen Ref- 

 erence Collection Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Nat. Mar. Fish. Serv., 

 Northeast Fisheries Center. Woods Hole Lab. Ref. Doc. 84-27, MARMAP 

 Contr. MED/NEFC 83-46, 1 14 p. (mimeo). Lnpubl. Manuscript. 



change. The results of those programs covered a broad 

 spectrum of interdisciplinary topics which expanded our 

 understanding of the marine environment (e.g. Pearce, 

 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975; Pratt, 1973; Pearce et al., 1976a, 

 1976b, 1976c, 1976d, 1977a, 1977b, 1977c, 1978, 1981; 

 Caracciolo et al., 1978; Pearson and Rosenberg, 1978; 

 Reid et al., 1979; Steimle and Radosh, 19/9; Warwick, 

 1980; Schaffnerand Boesch, 1982; Steimle. 1982; Boehm, 

 1983; Caracciolo and Steimle, 1983; Lear and O'Mallev. 

 1983; Steimle, 1985; Steimle and Terranova, 1985; Duinker 

 and Beanlands, 1986; Howart,1987; Neff, 1987; Reid et al., 

 1987; Steimle. 1990a, 1990b; Steimle et al., 1990). 



Materials and Methods 



Macro fauna Samples 



This report is based on 1,076 quantitative samples of 

 macrobenthic fauna collected during 22 cruises by 5 

 research vessels between 1956 and 1965 (Table l).The 

 geographic locality of sampling sites is illustrated i,i 

 Figure 1, and sampling density is illustrated in Figure 2 

 in which the number of samples in each geographic 

 unit area is indicated (dimension of each unit area is 20 

 minutes latitude by 20 minutes longitude). Collection 

 data (including cruise, station, and collection num- 



