Seaward of the second reef is another sandy plateau which, 

 along most of the coastline of southeastern Florida, is bounded by 

 yet a third well-developed rocky outcrop approximately 1.5 kilo- 

 meters from shore at depths of 18 to 22 meters. Off southernmost 

 Broward County, however, this third reef has only a few scattered 

 limestone outcrops, and the sandy floor drops gradually to form the 

 basin of the Florida Strait. 



III. METHODS AND MATERIALS 



Sampling stations at Hallandale Beach C25°58'56" N.) were 

 established along a transect, perpendicular to the shoreline, 

 extending from the intertidal zone through the second reef (Figs. 1 

 and 2), a distance of 650 to 700 meters. This transect included 

 five sandy-bottom stations and four reef stations. Station HS-1 

 was located midway in the sandy intertidal zone 425 meters south 

 of the rock jetty at the end of Hallandale Beach Boulevard (State 

 Road 824) . Two subtidal sandy-bottom stations were located between 

 the shoreline and the first reef. Station HS-2 was on the shore- 

 face at a depth of approximately 0.8 meter below mean sea level 

 (MSL) :HS-3 was about 1.0 meter from the inner edge of the first 

 reef at a depth of approximately 5.0 meters below MSL. Stations 

 HS-4 and HS-5 were located between the first and second reefs at 

 depths of about 7.0 and 8.0 meters below MSL, respectively. 



Reef stations on the Hallandale transect included one 

 station (HR-1) near the center of the first reef and three stations 

 (HR-2, HR-3, and HR-4) across the second reef. 



For comparative purposes, a second transect, with stations 

 in similar depths, was sampled at Golden Beach (25°58'27" N.) in 

 northernmost Dade County, about 0.9 kilometers south of the Hallan- 

 dale transect and away from the direct influences of the nourishment 

 project. The shelf topography was generally similar to that at 

 Hallandale, although the second reef was slightly farther offshore. 



Sandy-bottom stations were sampled by scuba divers between 

 3 November and 15 December 1977. A hand-held PVC coring apparatus 

 (Fig. 3) with a 7.9-centimeter inside diameter was used to collect 

 24 core samples at each station containing the top 11 centimeters 

 of sediment, giving a total sampling area at each station of 0.118 

 square meters. Similar stations on the two transects were sampled 

 on the same day, except at the outermost sand stations (HS-5 and 

 GS-5) where mechanical problems and severe weather forced a 2-week 

 interval between samplings. Samples were emptied individually into 

 1-gallon "Ziploc" storage bags, sealed, transported to the labora- 

 tory, and then washed through a 1.0 millimeter mesh screen and 

 preserved in a 20 percent seawater-formalin solution stained with 

 Rose Bengal. Animals were later sorted from the sediments and 

 transferred to 70 percent ethanol. 



An additional core sample was collected from each sandy- 

 bottom station for sediment analysis. Particle-size distribution 

 was determined by fractionation. Sediments were first dispersed 



