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Using meiofauna as a tool in environmental impact studies

Meiofauna constitutes microscopic invertebrates, usually defined as metazoans passing a 1 mm mesh size sieve and retained on a 63 µm or 40 µm sieve. It is due to the life history characteristics of meiofauna and direct practical benefits that enviornmental biologist have identified meiofauna as preferential indicator organisms in environmental impact studies.

1: They are intimately associated with sediments known to accumulate various contaminants

2: Their turnover rate is high, with generation times measured in weeks and months rather than years, so their response time to pollution events is faster than larger organisms.

3: They have conservative reproductive strategies and direct benthic rather than planktonic development. They cannot avoid pollution effects during the critical larval stages and thus are potentially more susceptible to stress.

4: Their populations tend to be temporally stable, thus any alteration in population structure can be more easily related to some form of environmental perturbation

5: They can be used in controlled laboratory experiments where community response can be assessed within a reasonable research period while this is usually not possible with macrofauna.

6: Only small samples are needed to provide sufficient numbers of individuals for analysis due to their small size, high diversity and abundance in all marine benthic habitats.

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