Summary
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1.
In sublittoral sediments of silty sand live about 55000–1300000 meiofauna animals, which is a minimum figure because methods are not absolutely efficient.
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2.
Meiofauna biomass ranges from 0.2 to 2.0 g wet weight in sublittoral silty sand, that is about 3% of macrofauna biomass.
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3.
A higher percentage of meiofauna biomass is recorded from brackish water regions, intertidal beaches and from the deep sea, where meiofauna and macrofauna biomass are of the same magnitude.
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4.
Oxygen consumption in meiofauna animals is between 200 and 2000, in small macrofauna between 200 and 500, and in larger macrofauna between 10 and 100 mm3 O2/h/g wet weight.
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5.
The assumption is forwarded that in general meiofauna has a metabolism five times more active than that of macrofauna.
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6.
Generation time in meiofauna lasts from a few days as was observed in cultures, to one or a few years, as was observed in natural populations. For a generalization the guess is forwarded that three generations per year would be an average meiofauna value.
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7.
Life cycle turnover rate as calculated from life cycle models of two nematodes is 2.2–3. Multiplied by three annual generations results in an average annual turnover rate of about 9 for meiobenthos, which is about five times more than that in macrobenthos.
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8.
If one compares meiobenthos and macrobenthos, meiobenthos importance in terms of food consumed and in terms of biomass provided for the food chain is 15% in a community like sublittoral silty sand, although meiobenthos in terms of standing stock is just 3% of macrobenthos.
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Gerlach, S.A. On the importance of marine meiofauna for benthos communities. Oecologia 6, 176–190 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00345719
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00345719