9-24 



Dame (1972) reported that allometric relationships for sub- 

 tidal and intertidal oyster populations (North Inlet, Georgetown, South 

 Carolina) varied with oyster size. He further speculated that loca] en- 

 vironmental conditions such as tidal range, wave action and water chem- 

 istry might be important in determining shell weight/dry body weight 

 ratios and other growth relationships in oyster populations. In light 

 of Dame's findings and speculation it was necessary that any test of 

 a hypothesis with respect to oyster growth take into account differences 

 due to initial size and also make evident distinctions between areas of 

 potentially different environmental conditions (stations) . The covariance 

 analysis carried out to test hypothesis (2) met these criteria. This 

 analysis utilized data from 1975-1977 and showed that yearly variation 

 in net growth was highly significant but that between-station variation 

 was not (minimum, 0.001<P<0.005) . 



The patterns of mean net oyster growth by month between Fort 

 Hale and Harbor Station for the years 1973 - 1977 were not significantly 

 different (Spearman's rank correlation test, P=0.56, P = 0.55; 

 Conover, 1971) . There was, however, significant variation in mean net 

 growth between years 1973-1977 (Kruskal-VJallis test, T=430.6, T = 

 19.7; Conover 1971). The results of both the Spearman's rank correla- 

 tion and Kruskal-Wallis test on the extended data set corroborate the 

 results of the covariance analysis. 



The potential relationship between allometric measurements and 

 environmental parameters that affect oyster growth suggested a method 

 for including those allometric measurements not used in the formal 

 hypothesis testing analysis. If similar environmental conditions are 

 reflected in similar allometric relationships then similar environmental 

 conditions should be reflected in patterns of correlation between any 

 two of the allometric relationships. More specifically, similar environ- 

 mental conditions should produce similar patterns of correlation between 

 cavity volume and mean length or any two allometric parameters. Mean 

 length, cavity volume, wet weight and dry weight measurements from this 

 study (1973-1977) were assembled into matrices by year and by station. 



