Denitrification is a critical process that can alleviate the effects of excessive nitrogen availability in aquatic ecosystems subject to eutrophication. An important part of denitrification occurs in benthic systems where bioturbation by meiofauna (invertebrates <1 mm) and its effect on element cycling are still not well understood. Here we study the quantitative impact of meiofauna populations...

In situ application of inorganic fertilizer was used to simulate environmental eutrophication associated with the sugar cane monoculture. Meiofauna community structure is herein used to assess this experimental impact. Nine quadrangular areas (4m2 each) were randomly defined in the midlittoral estuarine area. Three of these areas received a high dose of sugar cane fertilizer (375 g/m2 Nitrogen-...

Oxygen is recognized as a structuring factor of metazoan communities in marine sediments. The importance of oxygen as a controlling factor on meiofauna (32 µm-1 mm in size) respiration rates is however less clear. Typically, respiration rates are measured under oxic conditions, after which these rates are used in food web studies to quantify the role of meiofauna in sediment carbon turnover. Se...

Arctic sea ice provides microhabitats for biota that inhabit the liquid-filled network of brine channels and the ice-water interface. We used meta-analysis of 23 published and unpublished datasets comprising 721 ice cores to synthesize the variability in composition and abundance of sea ice meiofauna at spatial scales ranging from within a single ice core to pan-Arctic and seasonal scales. Two-...

Periphyton is a key component of shallow littoral zones of lakes and streams because it is an important source of primary production and a food resource for herbivores. Meiofauna are abundant in periphyton, but macroinvertebrate grazer (macrograzers) effects on periphytic meiofauna have not been studied so far. We used a spatially structured field experiment (hierarchical nested design consisti...

Meurer, A.Z. & Netto,S.A. 2007. Seasonal dynamics of benthic communities in a shallow sublittoral site of Laguna Estuarine System (South, Brazil). Braz. J. Aquat. Sci. Technol. 11(2):53-62. ISSN 1808-7035. The seasonal variability of the benthic community in a shallow sublittoral site was analyzed at the Laguna Estuarine System, a chocked lagoon in South Brazil. Seasonal replicate samples for t...

During the past 30 y, periphyton has been recognized as a key component in the benthos of lake littoral zones. However, the role of meiofauna-sized organisms living in the periphyton and mechanisms regulating and influencing those communities largely have been neglected, and the process of community development and colonization pathways of periphytic meiofauna are unknown in lakes. We studied t...

Fish larvae require high densities of appropriately sized prey items for their survival and recruitment. It has been widely assumed that inundated floodplains are the major source of high densities of prey in floodplain rivers. This study examined the density and distribution of both pelagic and epibenthic meiofauna in a range of potential larval fish nursery habitats within the main channel of...

The present study aimed to establish potential indicators of fish farming pollution in muddy substrate, by means of meiofauna, and to test whether the effect of the fish farm is more important to determine the meiofauna community than the seasonal environmental conditions. Sampling was performed in spring, after several months of light feeding, and in summer, at high food supply. Samples were c...

Citation: Pape E, Bezerra TN, Hauquier F and Vanreusel A (2017) Limited Spatial and Temporal Variability in Meiofauna and Nematode Communities at Distant but Environmentally Similar Sites in an Area of Interest for Deep-Sea Mining. Front. Mar. Sci. 4:205. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00205 Limited Spatial and Temporal Variability in Meiofauna and Nematode Communities at Distant but Environmentally S...