The structure of meiofauna communities

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Abstract
Although the meiofauna covers a diverse range of taxa, all are convergent in that (by definition) their size range is relatively restricted. Conceivably this could lead to community structure being organized in a different way to that in macrofauna. Commonly, community structure has been measured as a mathematical description of the relationship of individuals to species or as a simple diversity index. Individuals and species of meiofauna from kelp holdfast along the north-east coast of England fitted both a logarithmic series and a log-normal model using data from unpolluted sites. At a polluted site the fit was generally less good to both models. In general however, the log-normal was a closer fit to the observed data than the log-series, as has been found in other marine data. Using a neutral model, which eliminates the influence of biological interactions, diversity was found to be higher than predicted in meiofauna from kelp holdfasts and in Gastrotricha from sand beaches in eastern U.S.A. At a polluted site and with data for nematodes from an unpolluted site, diversity was not significantly different from neutral model predictions, but eveness was significantly lower. Unlike terrestrial ecosystems therefore, biological interactions lead to higher diversity values in marine meiofaunal communities than neutral model predictions. Pollution has the effect of increasing dominance and thus lowering diversity values to neutral model predictions.