Meiofauna distribution in Southern Yellow Sea in winter

The benthic meiofauna was quantitatively investigated in the Southern Yellow Sea during the cruise by Bei dou in Jan and Feb,2007.The results showed that the meiofauna average abundance and biomass were 34.88 ind/cm2 and 38.58 μg dwt/cm2 respectively.The horizontal distribution patterns for abundance and biomass were generally the same,that is the high values occurred at stations along the of 45 m isobath.It appeared that the middle area is high,near-shore and outer low.A total of fifteen meiobenthic groups were recognized.Free-living marine nematode was the dominant group with a mean abundance of 27.19 ind/cm2 constituting 77.6% of the total,the second and many other important groups were benthic copepods(13.3%),polychaetes(2.6%),kinorhychs(2.5%),bivalvia(1.2%),nauplii(1.1%) ostracods(0.4%) and the others 1.3%.Based on the biomass,polychaetes(32.9%),nematodes(27.7%) and benthic copepods(22.1%) were the main groups.On average 70.8% of the meiobenthos distributed in the top 0~2 cm of the sediment and morn than 90% in the eastern deep sea area.