Description
Book SynopsisAlthough of high abundance, diversity and ecological importance, meiofauna is little covered by relevant scientific media. How can this negligence be overcome? The present treatise highlights promising meiofauna research fields, selected both from basic and applied science, as well as new methods that could strengthen the potential of meiobenthology. Selected recent meiofauna studies, often supported by rapidly advancing gene-based methods, underline the relevance and potential of meiobenthology revealing characteristics and harassments of ecosystems, not the least in extreme habitats. Also in the more classical domains such as taxonomy and phylogeny, progress in meiobenthos research defines a new and deeper scientific understanding.
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Chapter 1: Fields of general relevance and broad public interest
a. New areas, novel communities, exotic biotopes
b. The deep-sea
c. Newly accessible polar regions
Chapter 2: Pollution and Meiofauna
a. Oil spills at the deep-sea bottom
b. Petroleum hydrocarbons in ground water aquifers
c. Water acidification and CO2-increase
d. Microplastics and plastic fibres
Chapter 3: Future ecological trends in meiobenthos research
a. Aspects of biodiversity
b. Principles of distribution, dispersal, and colonization
c. Organismic interactions – meiofauna between microbiota and macrofauna
Chapter 4: Physiology, biochemistry and meiofauna – a rarely touched realm
a. Hypoxia, anoxia and hydrogen sulfide – fields of physiological challenge
b. Temperature – a physiological driver
c. Fatty acids as biomarkers
d. Physiological reactions revealed by genetic analyses
Chapter 5: Towards and integrated triad – taxonomy, morphology, and phylogeny
a. Advances in the methodological basis
b. New trends reviving ‘old morphology’
c. Phylogeny and evolution – meiofauna at the beginning
Epilogue
