TABLE 2. cont'd 



not among the ten most numerically abundant taxa 



Dominant Taxa 

 In the following section, temporal patterns in 

 abundance of dominant intertidal taxa were ex- 

 amined using the same multiple regression analysis 

 procedure used to remove natural sources of vari- 

 ation in community density and numbers of spe- 

 cies. Taxa were selected if they ranked among the 

 dominants (BIV's > 80%) during either the pre- 

 operational or the operational period. Quarterly 

 mean abundances are presented with multiple re- 

 gression models and adjusted annual means. Val- 

 ues presented in the following figures are log 

 transformed (LN(X + I)) and those in the text are 

 the exponentials of these values. 

 Oligochaetes 



These deposit-feeding annelids commonly in- 

 habit the littoral and shallow subtidal marine hab- 

 itats in areas of high organic content and feed on 

 the bacterial populations that colonize organic 



detritus (Soulsby et al. 1982; IIuU 1987). In the 

 Millstone area, oligochaetes have been among the 

 more dominant intertidal organisms. This group 

 ranked first in abundance at JC in both the pre- 

 operational and operational periods. Although 

 oligochaetes were consistently among the domi- 

 nants at WP and GN, average densities were fre- 

 quently an order of magnitude less than those at 

 .IC. 



Quarterly oligochaete abundance from Septem- 

 ber 1985 - .lune 1987, ranged from - 30/core at 

 GN, 9 - 666/core at .IC, 1 - 3/core at WP (Fig. 

 7A-C). Densities at JC varied widely during the 

 last two years and values near the upper and 

 lower extremes were obtained. Seasonal peaks 

 occurred in .lune of 1986 and 1987. Large seasonal 

 fluctuations also occurred at GN during the 

 1986-87 period, but unlike .IC, peaks occurred in 

 September. The oligochaete population at WP 



Benthic Infauna 



73 



