is not available to macrofauna as food in \ufficient amounts (Gerlach and 
Schrage, 1969; McIntyre, 1969, 1971; McIntyre and Murison, 1973; McLachlan, 
1977a; Gerlach, 1978) because biomass remains low due to the diminutive size 
of the individual meiofaunal organisms (McLachlan, 1977a). 
The importance of the meiofaunal system to the nearshore environment seems 
to be restricted to the recycling of nutrients (McIntyre, 1969; Elmgren, 1976). 
Meiofauna was not monitored during the present study because of the: 
(a) Relative insignificance of the meiofaunal system as a direct 
food source for any important sport or commercial species, and the 
unclear ecological importance of the meiofauna; 
(b) extreme difficulty of meiofauna taxonomy (R. Rieger, Department 
of Zoology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 
personal communication, 1977) coupled with the widespread occurrence of 
endemic forms (Cox, 1976); and 
(c) serious problems of sample reproducibility due to extreme 
microscale variation (Cox, 1976). 
4. Macrofauna. 
The macrofauna system was chosen to monitor the effects of beach nourish- 
ment because: 
(a) The importance of the macrofauna is well established both as a 
direct and an indirect food source to both commercial and sport species; 
(b) there are no difficulties with taxonomy, and the organisms 
represented on a sandy beach are generally fairly widespread biogeo- 
graphically; 
(c) sample reproducibility is possible even though there is a great 
deal of variation within any given beach in the distribution of the 
macrofauna; and 
(d) the larval life histories are fairly well known. 
The intertidal zone macrofauna of a high-energy sandy beach in North 
Carolina is dominated by the mole crab, #. talpotda, and coquina clams, Donax 
spp. (Pearse, Humm, and Wharton, 1942; Matta, 1977; Leber, 1977). According 
to Porter (personal communication, 1977) previous workers have not differen- 
tiated between two species of Donax occurring south of Cape Hatteras, D. 
vartabilis and D. parvula. Although both species of Donax look somewhat alike 
(Emerson and Jacobson, 1976) and occur together during certain times of the 
year, Leber (1977) suggested that they occupy different niches, He stated that 
during late summer when £. talpotda populations occupy all the available space 
in the swash zone, D. parvula compensates by moving offshore till early the 
following spring, but D. variabilis compensates by remaining stranded on the 
upper beach. Figure A-3 is an energy flow diagram for the sandy beach macro- 
fauna. Figure 4 in the text shows tidal zonation on the sandy beach with the 
locations most occupied by each species encountered on North Carolina beaches. 
te 
