#meiofauna

[eddieintheocean]

Meiofauna shell under microscope

[biomorphi]

in loving memory of trixie, my pet nudibranch. trixie was a Vayssierea felis nudibranch/sea slug/sea bunny who was ~.5cm long. here's a tiktok i made about her with video footage of her!

[patchthemedic]

Sideswipe vs. giant polycheate (WIP) - hope someone finds you soon bud...

[angaturama]

I love the tardigrades I had found in my zoology class

[currentsinbiology]

King of The Mud Dragons 

Mud dragons are just one type of meiofauna, animals so diminutive they live between grains of sediment. They swim through the watery film surrounding each grain, or navigate the terrain of sand and mud—veritable mountains to scale—using suction pads, hooks, or tiny toes. Just a handful of marine sediment is a meiofauna metropolis. They’re so numerous that under a single footprint on moist sand there could be up to 100,000 individuals. A brief walk, say just 85 steps, might tromp over eight and a half million organisms, a number equivalent to the population of New York City.

Kinorhynchs (aka mud dragons) range in size from about 0.13 to one millimeter. Like other meiofauna species, they are integral parts of marine food chains in sediments throughout the world. (Photo by María Herranz)

[eddieintheocean]

Meiofauna abundance in green, brown, and red algae

i got 73/100 in this lab report and it was interesting so have this <3

Introduction

Meiofauna are small benthic animals that are between 40 and 500 µm. They largely consist of invertebrate phyla, such as Nematoda and Crustacea (Coull, 1999). Meiofauna living on rocky shores experience a less stable environment compared to organisms living in the ocean. For example, exposure to waves is a factor that non-littoral meiofauna do not experience. As a result, meiofauna in littoral zones may seek shelter from the environment in algae on the shore (Gibbons, 1988a). The aim of this experiment was to determine whether there was a significant different between the abundance of meiofauna found in green and red algae. The hypothesis is that the abundance of meiofauna should be higher in the sample of red algae compared to the green and brown algae.

Methods

Equal weights of red, green, and brown algae were weighed and prepared in 2023. The samples were passed through a 1mm and 250µm mesh sieve. The collected meiofauna were then preserved in ethanol. To count the abundance of meiofauna, a grid was drawn on the bottom on two petri dishes (one for green and brown, and one for red). We then observed the gridded petri dishes under a microscope and used a clicker to count the number of meiofauna observed in each section of grid. In analysis of the results, a Welch’s t-test was performed to compare the two means.

Results

The red algae had a higher abundance overall than the green/brown algae with a mean of 49.6 and 20.5 respectively (Figure 1). There was a significant difference in abundance of meiofauna in red and green/brown algae (p<0.0001, t=5.56).

Discussion

With these results, we can accept the hypothesis that abundance in red algae is higher than in green/brown algae. Red algae has been shown to offer protection from exposure to waves, in comparison to subtidal beds of green algae which offer less shelter for meiofauna (Gibbons, 1988b). Despite this, further experiments should be made to determine whether the structure of the algae is the main reason for the increased abundance. For example, differing prey and food sources in each environment may be another reason for meiofauna species to live in either type of algae. There are other factors to consider too, such as predation within the environment. Environments where meiofauna are more likely to be preyed upon may also impact species abundance (Tano et al., 2016). Furthermore, there is evidence of other studies demonstrating that structural complexity and abundance may not be completely linked, or that the relationship is more complicated than it originally seemed (Russo, 1990).

Figure 1, The total abundance of meiofauna found in either green/brown algae or red algae.

Reference list

Coull, B. C. (1999). Role of meiofauna in estuarine soft-bottom habitats*. Australian Journal of Ecology, 24(4), 327–343. https://doi.org/10.1046/J.1442-9993.1999.00979.X

Gibbons, M. J. (1988a). Studies on the meiofauna of rocky shores. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8410

Gibbons, M. J. (1988b). The impact of wave exposure on the meiofauna of Gelidium pristoides (Turner) Kuetzing (Gelidiales: Rhodophyta). Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 27(6), 581–593. https://doi.org/10.1016/0272-7714(88)90070-4

Russo, A. R. (1990). The role of seaweed complexity in structuring Hawaiian epiphytal amphipod communities. In Hydrobiologia (Vol. 194, Issue 1). Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Tano, S., Eggertsen, M., Wikström, S. A., Berkström, C., Buriyo, A. S., & Halling, C. (2016). Tropical seaweed beds are important habitats for mobile invertebrate epifauna. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 183, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.ECSS.2016.10.010

[biomorphi]

wormies!! these are some wormies i've seen and worked with over the past year. the alt text of the images has the names of the worms! they're all flatworms and are very very cute

[art-of-coo2woo]

Hi all!

I made these Meiofauna coloring pages with little facts about each phyla. We have my favorite nematode, Metadasynemella, the might tardigrade, and a harpacticoid copepod.

If you're an educator, I'd be happy to share printable files with you. Just DM me!