The overall mean RPD for this area was 6.1 cm, with the 

 shallowest mean RPD values found at stations lOON/lOOW and 

 500S/100W (Figure 3-82) . As expected, RPD values were relatively 

 deep at this undisturbed site. 



Twenty-five of thirty-six stations at CLIS-SE exhibited 

 Stage I successional seres (Figure 3-83) . The relative paucity of 

 Stage III infauna is not readily explained. It is possible Stage 

 III seres exist, but evidence of feeding voids were missed because 

 of the lack of replicate images taken at each station; another 

 possibility is that this area because of its relatively flat 

 topography experiences frequent disturbance due to trawling 

 activities. In any event, because the area appears to be dominated 

 by Stage I assemblages, recovery of this region to its pre-disposal 

 successional status would be rapid (i.e., less than one month). 



Of the 3 6 images analyzed from CLIS-SE, 24 had OSI values 

 of +7, while 7 had index values of +11 (Figure 3-81). The 

 distribution of OSI values reflected the distribution of infaunal 

 successional stages; in general, the higher OSI values (+11) were 

 found in the northern half of the survey area (Figure 3-84) . 



3.3.9 CLIS Transect 



As part of the post-storm survey, a transect of 10 

 REMOTS® stations extending from the New Haven Harbor entrance to 

 the CLIS disposal site was occupied. Due to inadequate REMOTS® 

 prism penetration because of shell lag deposits at 3 stations, 

 useful images were obtained at only 7 stations along this transect. 



The grain-size and benthic "process" map of this transect 

 (Figure 3-86) indicated, as expected, a shoreward increase in modal 

 grain-size. Evidence of bottom disturbance, i.e., shell lag 

 layers, mud clasts, exposed worm tubes, and disturbed RPD layers, 

 were observed throughout the transect (Figure 3-86) . There was no 

 obvious indication that bottom disturbance varied over the depth 

 ranges sampled (6 to 20 meters) . Moreover, it was apparent from 

 the results of the post-storm disposal mound surveys that the 

 influence of the storm extended well beyond this transect. 



3 . 4 Sediment Characteristics 



The sediment^collected at CLIS-SE was described by field 

 personnel as a 2-3 cm oxidized layer covering a soft silty clay 

 with both worm tubes and shell hash present. The physical analysis 

 of all the samples (including the CLIS Reference station) by the 

 NED analytical laboratory characterized the sediment as olive gray 

 organic silty clay with traces of sand and shell fragments. Over 

 95% of the sediment passed the #200 sieve (silt/clay) and had a 

 specific gravity of 2.67 and a pH of 7.1. The concentrations of 

 metals in the sediment from the CLIS-SE area (Table 3-2) reflected 



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