Study and Station Description

Three stations (FOAM, NWC, and DEEP) representing three different depositional environments in central Long Island Sound were chosen for study (Fig. 1). The relative bathymetry of the stations is shown in the north-south cross section of Fig. 2. As illustrated by the thickness of marine mud accumulated at each site during the last 5000 years, the longterm sedimentation rate does not greatly differ in the three areas (Bok-uniewicz et al., 1976). No stations were located in the region of highest 

All stations in less than about 20 m of water are subject to constant resuspension of surface sediment creating highly turbid conditions. During major storms the upper few centimeters at these stations may be eroded and redeposited (Aller and Cochran, 1976 McCall, 1978), but normally only the top 1 mm or so is subject to resuspension (Bokuniewicz, 

DEEP station is also subject to resuspension, but only through tidal scour and it is considerably lower in turbidity than either FOAM or NWC. 

The bottom fauna in the central Sound have distinct bathymetric patterns in distribution. These patterns are delineated by changes in the relative abundance of animals of certain sizes, life habits, life history, and feeding types in different regions of the bottom, and reflect depositional environment and severity frequency of physical disturbances (McCall, 

This allows comparison, in an inshore-offshore transect, of di-agenetic processes in sediment inhabited by animals of different feeding groups, life habits, and life histories, all of which determine the ways in which animals interact with sediment. 

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