Meiobenthos (sediment-dwelling organisms between 38 µm and 1 mm in size) is a group of infaunal organisms involved in the degradation of organic matter, and as such also strongly linked to the microbial loop. Meiobenthos from the North Sea is well described along the coastlines of the Southern Bight of the North Sea and the West coast of the UK. Their spatial distribution and community composition in the central North Sea has been studied for the first time in the 1980s. Within the framework of a new integrated biodiversity assessment, samples from different benthic size classes were collected during a campaign crossing the entire North Sea from the Netherlands to Norway in May 2018. In this thesis, the biodiversity of the meiofauna component along this transect will be assessed and compared to the historical samples from the 1980s. We will relate spatial variability in meiofauna communities to food availability, abiotic habitat characteristics and distribution of other benthic size classes (macrofauna) and we will explore whether meiobenthic communities from the North Sea have experienced changes in community composition (both taxonomic and functional) since the 1980s.
This work involves extraction of meiofauna from sediment samples, counting on higher taxon level and preparation of slides for nematode identification. If time allows, the student can be involved in statistical analysis and data interpretation.
