All creatures great and small: patterns in the stream benthos across a wide range of metazoan body size

Abstract

SUMMARY1. The whole metazoan community (i.e. including the meiofauna) of an acidic, fishless stream in south‐east England was surveyed over 14 months between March 1999 and April 2000. Invertebrate density, biomass and taxonomic richness were assessed on each sampling occasion in relation to physico‐chemical variables.2. The meiofauna were more numerous and diverse than the macrofauna, while their total biomass occasionally equalled that of the macrofauna.3. The meiofaunal and macrofaunal assemblages appeared to respond to different environmental factors. The meiofauna showed genuine species turnover through the year, while the macrofauna varied less in taxonomic composition though there were substantial variations in density.4. These data suggest that the meiofauna and macrofauna exist at different temporal and spatial scales and perceive their environment with a different ‘grain’.