A Benthos and plankton study of the Corpus Christi, Copano and Aransas bay systems. I. Report on the methods used and data collected during the period September 1972-June 1973.

The objectives of this study are: 1) the survey of benthic and planktonic communities and their seasonal fluctuations in the Corpus Christi and Aransas Bay systems, 2) the determination of the nutrient budget of these bay systems using data collected under the existing Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) - U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) cooperative estuarine program, 3) the definition of the primary biological productivity of the Corpus Christi and Aransas Bay systems for the project period, and 4) the correlation of nutrient supplies and primary productivity of the estuarine system with seasonal fresh water flows. This report covers the first ten months of the study. Data collected during this period has been stored in the TWDB's Coastal Data System (CDS), a computer operative data storage and retrieval system, located in Austin, Texas.