the impact to the system was delete- 

 rious. Corpus Christi Bay is a hy- 

 persaline estuary and the events des- 

 cribed here included measured changes 

 in salinity from the normal 25 to 30 

 ppt down to 11 ppt at one point in 

 the bottom of the channel. This 

 change may not have been sufficient 

 to produce the same negative impact 

 to the system as observed in other 

 studies . 



We conclude from this study, 

 however, that periodic freshwater in- 

 flows to the Corpus Christi Bay eco- 

 system are extremely important in 

 maintaining productivity of the eco- 

 system. We hypothesize that the 

 freshwater inflow represents an in- 

 crease in nutrients to the estuarine 

 habitat which is then reflected by 

 and increase in primary production 

 of the system. Much of this in- 

 creased primary production is ulti- 

 mately diverted to the benthos 

 (Flint and Rabalais 1981) and ulti- 

 mately stimulates increased ben- 

 thic infaunal production, represent- 

 ing additional food supplies to many 

 of the important area fisheries such 

 as shrimp. The lag time observed in 

 this study between the inflow event 

 and changed dynamics of the benthos 

 is represented by dynamics in the 

 lower trophic levels that must occur 

 before the events are reflected by 

 the benthos. 



Therefore, from the data pre- 

 sented above, we feel that the kind 

 of freshwater inflow observed dur- 

 ing September 1979 is definitely be- 

 neficial to the entire estuarine eco- 

 system. The significance of docu- 

 menting the effects within the Corpus 

 Christi Bay system are obvious. En- 

 vironmental managers in this area are 

 constantly faced with decisions in- 

 volving freshwater resources and ef- 

 fects to the estuary, related to the 

 regulation of their flows. In addi- 



tion, since the benthos is included 

 in the trophic webs involving many of 

 the important fisheries of the area, 

 such as shrimp, the indirect effect 

 to the fishery, reflected by future 

 catch statistics correlated to the 

 heavy freshwater inputs, and their 

 effect to the benthic populations 

 provide sound information to further 

 test some of the models developed by 

 environmental managers in recent 

 years (Martin et al. 1980). We feel 

 that this information on the benthos 

 provides a missing link in the cor- 

 relation observed between freshwater 

 inflow and shrimp statistics. 



LITERATURE CITED 



Boesch, D.F.; Diaz, J.; Virnstein, R. 

 W. Effects of tropical storm Ag- 

 nes on softbottom macrobenthic 

 communities of the James and 

 York estuaries and the lower 

 Chesapeake Bay. Chesapeake Sci. 

 17:246-259; 1976. 



Day, J.S.; Field, J.G.; Montgomery, 

 M. Use of numerical methods to 

 determine the distribution of 

 benthic fauna across the conti- 

 nental shelf of North Carolina. 

 J. Animal Ecol. 40:93-126; 1971. 



Downing, J. A. Aggregation, transfor- 

 mation and the design of benthos 

 sampling programs. J. Fish. Res. 

 Board Can. 36:1454-1463; 1979. 



Flint, R. W. , Rabalais, N.N. Environ- 

 mental Studies of a marine eco- 

 system: south Texas outer con- 

 tinental shelf. Austin, Texas: 

 Univ. of Texas Press; 1981:235p. 



507 



