Research Article, J Mar Biol Oceanogr Vol: 4 Issue: 1
Does Morphology of Host Marine Macroalgae Drive the Ecological Structure of Epiphytic Meiofauna?
| José Andrés Pérez-García*, Alexei Ruiz-Abierno and Maickel Armenteros |
| Centro de Investigaciones Marinas, Universidad de La Habana. Playa, CP 11300, Habana, Cuba |
| Corresponding author : José Andrés Pérez-García Centro de Investigaciones Marinas, Universidad de La Habana. Playa, CP 11300, Habana, Cuba E-mail: jose.andres@cim.uh.cu |
| Received: November 17, 2014 Accepted: March 04, 2015 Published: March 10, 2015 |
| Citation: Pérez-García JA, Ruiz-Abierno A, Armenteros M (2015) Does Morphology of Host Marine Macroalgae Drive the Ecological Structure of Epiphytic Meiofauna?. J Mar Biol Oceanogr 4:1. doi:10.4172/2324-8661.1000139 |
Abstract
Does Morphology of Host Marine Macroalgae Drive the Ecological Structure of Epiphytic Meiofauna?
We explored the relationships between the epiphytic meiofauna and the morphology of five host macroalgae species. Four morphological attributes of the macroalgae (fractal complexity, area, perimeter, and amount of trapped sediment) were measured and correlated with the density and diversity of meiofauna and nematodes. The meiofauna was similar to epiphytic communities described in other studies with harpacticoid copepods and nematodes being the two more abundant taxa. The structural complexity of the macroalgae did not correlate with the meiofauna neither with the nematode assemblages.
