between species abundance and one or more sedimentological factors 

 were reported in Bader, 1954; Parker, 1956; Thorson, 1957; Sanders, 

 1958; McNulty, Work, and Moore, 1962; Taylor, Hall, and Saloman, 1971; 

 Young and Rhoads, 1971; and Bloom, Simon, and Hunter, 1972. 



Other major factors affecting the distribution and abundance of 

 benthic invertebrates are temperature, salinity, wave shock, turbidity, 

 pollution, currents, geographical barriers, and tidal exposure. 



The sediments in this study are fairly similar alongshore and at 

 similar distances from shore. Fluctuations in the physical, chemical, 

 and statistical components are small. 



Correlation coefficients (r) were calculated between several 

 sedimentological factors and the abundance of the 14 most abundant 

 species in this nearshore zone. The factors tested were percentage 

 weight of sand, silt, and total carbon, mean grain size (millimeter), 

 and standard deviations (phi units). The following formula was used: 



r = ~Ty — T\ — 7y — 2T (Snedecor and Cochran, 1967) . 



The degrees of freedom used to test the significance levels of r at 

 the 5- and 1-percent level was 255. 



The number of significant correlations at either the 5- or 1- 

 percent levels was limited to three of the five sediment parameters 

 (Table 30) . The correlation of animal abundance in relation to 

 percentage weight and total carbon was not significant. The highest 

 significant relationship existed between mean grain size and animal 

 abundance. Since all r values are positive, the number of individuals 

 increases as the mean grain size increases. The highest r value was 

 0.5282 for Aeanthohaustorius n. sp. The level of significance was 

 0.164 at the 1-percent level and 0.125 at the 5-percent level, based 

 on 255 degrees of freedom (Snedecor and Cochran, 1967) . Correlation 

 with standard deviation values indicated a relationship exists for 

 some species. As the number of individuals increases, the distribution 

 of sediment particle size around the mean also increases. 



Two species, E. oonoentrica and Manaoawna sp., exhibited no 

 correlation with the parameters tested; four species showed a 

 correlation with only one sediment parameter (Table 30) . 



99 



