Some Traits of Meiofauna in the Surf Region of the Southern Mediterranean Sea Coast

Abstract

During the winter and summer of 2019, eight study sites in eastern Libya were used to establish meiofauna diversity in the Southern Mediterranean Sea's near-shore sandy bottom surf region. The physicochemical characteristics of surface water at the study sites were mostly similar. Seventeen taxa of floatable meiofauna (extracted from sediment samples by floatation) were identified, sixteen during winter and ten during summer: By number of individuals per taxon, Nematoda and Foraminifera were the most abundant taxa. The other available taxa were Rhabdocoela, Xanacoelomorpha, Gastrotrichs, Polychaeta, Kinorhyncha, and Urodasys. Four non-floatable meiofauna taxa were encountered (Foraminifera, Mussel, Gastropod, and Ostracoda). This low diversity of floatable and non-floatable meiofauna was possibly due to the strong wave action prevailing in the region and the adjacent deleterious anthropogenic activities. Meiofaunal diversity was higher in winter than in summer, possibly due to the higher dissolved phosphorus concentration during this season. The causes of the between-site differences in meiofaunal diversity are unclear, but differences in adjacent coastal anthropogenic activities might had more impact than differences in the prevailing physicochemical traits of the interstitial habitat. New practical techniques for collecting and identifying the smaller meiofauna are needed.