Total organic content of the sediments was very low at all sites for all 

 collections (Table 18). Total organic content ranged from 0.00 to 1.03 per- 

 cent during the study. This range, analogous to the ocean beach organic 

 content data, is likely within the analytical precision of the loss on the 

 incineration method used. There were no discernible patterns of organic 

 content within or between transects by the collection date, or between collec- 

 tion dates (ANOV, arc sine transformation, a>0.14). 



The mean grain size, sorting, skewness, and kurtosis statistics indicated 

 that the granulometry of the sound sediments was very consistent along the 

 transects and through time (Tables 19 to 22) . The total range for the mean 

 grain size was 1.46 to 2.76 phi. Variation in the mean grain size was greatest 

 between transects and time at the sites nearest the shore (sites 1 and 2), but 

 this was still not much variation. Sorting was low, ranging from 0.34 to 1.26 

 for the study, with a weak tendency for sorting to increase nearer the 

 shoreline. No trends were discernible in the skewness and kurtosis statistics. 



b. Macrobenthos . A total of 19 taxa were identified from all sound 

 samples (Table 23) . The chironomids presented the only analysis problem. 

 Matta (1977) grouped all species as immature chironomids. In this study 

 it was found that there were two genera Polypedilum and Cryptochironomus 

 present. For comparability all the chironomid species were grouped for all 

 analyses. 



The dominant taxa were polychaetes, oligochaetes, amphipods, and 

 chironomids. Within each major taxonomic group one species numerically 

 dominated. Limnodrilus spp. was the dominant oligochaete and overall dominant 

 in the sound samples. They were followed by Lepidactylus dysticus, an 

 amphipod, and Laeonereis culvert, a polychaete. Polypedilum was the dominant 

 chironomid but it did not occur in large numbers. Another abundant species 

 was Scolecolepides viridis . Several species were common but never were 

 abundant . They were Rangia cuneata , Gammarus sp . , Monoculodes sp . , Cyathura 

 polita, and Cryptochironomus sp. The polychaete Streblospio benedicti was 

 common only in July 1981, not having occurred during the other three seasons. 

 Its appearance in July was undoubtedly due to the increasing salinity in the 

 study area. The distribution and abundance of the more important taxa are 

 presented in Table 24. There were only three species with only one or two 

 occurrences. 



The community structure statistics of occurrence and diversity (Table 25) 

 indicated two general trends. The first is related to time, as the study 

 progressed community structure statistics all gradually increased, except for 

 the number of individuals. This trend in general was not seasonal but a 

 response to the increasing salinity. The changes in the number of 

 individuals seemed to be neither seasonal nor salinity related. The 

 second trend, which held for all community structure statistics, was 

 that sample sites farther from the shore (sites 5 to 8) had higher statistics. 

 The difference between the nearshore and the offshore sites was most 

 pronounced in January 1981 where there were more than twice as many 

 individuals as the offshore sites (Table 25) . The sites farther from 

 shore were deeper and better buffered from temperature extremes and ice. 

 Community structure statistics did not show much seasonality over the course 

 of the study. 



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