Animal Sciences Commons^™

Dynamics Of Meiobenthic Fauna In A Tropical Sandy Coast (Chennai, Bay Of Bengal) With Reference To The Physicochemical Parameters, Madhavan Kesavaraj, Md Anwar Nawaz, Zahara Tasneem, Mohammed Asjad Shams Tabrez, Kareem Altaff, Mohamed Saquib Naveed

Turkish Journal of Zoology

The term “meiobenthos” refers to a diverse community of organisms inhabiting the interstitial spaces between sand grains retained on sieve sizes ranging between 38 to 500 μm. This study investigates the diversity and density of meiobenthic communities across five locations along the Chennai coast. We examined the dominant meiobenthic groups, with nematodes exhibiting high dominance at Napier station (288.6 ± 91.07 ind.10cm²) and harpacticoids dominating at Marina station (449.88 ± 264.3 ind.10cm²). To establish the relationship between meiobenthic organisms and environmental parameters, we analyzed seven physicochemical factors throughout the study period. The results indicate a negative correlation between ammonia, nitrate, …