The cluster analysis delineated five major station groups from all the 

 data (sites, transects, and seasons). Station group 1 was composed of mostly 

 near-beach sites in November and April, and middepth sites in July (Table 

 13) . Emerita talpoida was the dominant species at these sites (Table 11) . 

 Station group 2 was the deeper of the sites in November and July. Only one 

 site in January and two in April were included in group 2. The dominant 

 species at this station group were Scolelepis squamata (particularly in 

 July), Donax spp. , and the haustorids. Group 3 appeared to be transitional 

 between groups 1 and 2 . In November group 3 was in between groups 1 and 2 . 

 In January and April group 2 was the deeper of the sites, indicating the 

 absence or low abundance of many dominant species. In July group 2 was close 

 to the beach (Table 13) . Group 4 represented the depauperate stations with 

 only a few occurrences of any species. This group occurred mainly in January 

 with one site in November and one site in July being included. Station group 

 5 was all the sites that had no fauna, which occurred mainly in January, with 

 two occurrences in April and one in July (Table 13) . 



Since there were only seven species that occurred at more than four of 

 the collecting sites, the species cluster was not very informative. Emerita 

 talpoida was in a group by itself and was the only species characteristic 

 of the shallow nearshore sites. Edotea spp. was also in a group by itself 

 because of its rareness; it occurred only five times during the study. The 

 other five species, Scolelepis squamata, Donax spp., haustorids, Amphiporeia 

 virginiana, and Bathyporeia quoddyensis , were all placed together as a single 

 species group. 



2. Sound Beach . 



a. Phys i ca 1 Envi ronment . The temperature was constant at all the 

 collecting sites in both January and July. In November there was a slight 

 gradient, with deeper sites on all transects having lower temperatures. In 

 April the temperature increased from transects 4 to 5 to 6, indicating diel 

 warming of the water as samples were collected. Collecting started early in 

 the morning at transect 4 and ended in the afternoon at transect 6 (Table 14) . 

 The range of temperature for the study was 0.0° to 23.8° Celsius. 



Salinity throughout the course of the study increased from about 3 parts 

 per thousand to a little less than 8 parts per thousand. The increase in 

 salinity is related to the general drought conditions that existed in the 

 Currituck Sound drainage basin during the study period. There was a slight 

 drop in salinity in the winter (January) with the average being 2.3 parts per 

 thousand (Table 15) . 



The depth from MSL on any transect was never greater than 1.09 meters 



(Table 16). The bottom on all transects sloped gradually out to a 304.8-meter 



distance. From collection to collection there was a maximum 0.5-meter 



difference in depth at any one site along a transect, with most differences 

 being less than 0.2 meter. 



The total carbonate content of the sediments was very low, except at 

 three sites where the fragments of Rangia cuneata shells were found (Table 17). 

 No patterns in the carbonate content could be discerned. If the three high 

 values are eliminated, the total range for all transects and seasons is only 

 0.00 to 0.83 percent. 



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