Author: Francis J. Jr Reilly

Publisher:

Published: 1983

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

During the winter and spring of 1977-78 approximately 1600 meters of high-energy sandy ocean beach at Fort Macon State Park was nourished with sediments d edged from Morehead City State Port Harbor. This report is the result of a 20- month study of the nourished beach and a comparable unnourished beach. Shannon-Weaver's Species Diversity Indexes ranged from 0.00 to 0.64 on both beaches during the 6 months before nourishment. Generally, Shannon-Weaver values were higher on the nourishment beach before nourishment due to the higher numbers of species present. High species number is attributed to the close proximity of the nourishment beach to Beaufort Inlet. After nourishment began the unnourished beach maintained the same diversity and density patterns that both beaches had displayed before nourishment although there was seasonal variation. The species diversity on the nourished beach became undefined at the onset of nourishment because the density of all species dropped to zero. This situation remained at the nourished beach until nourishment activities ceased. During the nourishment activities, the Fort Macon beach was subdivided into two segments (the area already nourished and the area not yet nourished). While all organisms in the nourished area disappeared, no increased population densities were noted from the adjacent unnourished area. Near the end of nourishment activities this unnourished area showed both a drastic reduction in diversity and a change in species composition, thus indicating a certain edge effect of nourishment.