Faunal composition of metazoan meiofauna from the southeast continental shelf of India

457-467Analysis of the faunal composition of meiobenthos in the sediments of the southeast continental shelf of India <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">showed nine taxonomic groups. Among these, nematoda, copepod and foraminifera were dominant. As many as 192 species of free-living marine nematodes, 39 species of harpacticoid copepods and 39 species of foraminiferans were identified. Other groups of metazoans <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">encountered were polychaetes, ostracods, isopods, cumaceans, tanaidacea and tardigarda. Free-living marine nematodes constituted 57.63% of the total meiofaunal organisms. Harpacticoid copepods, foraminiferans and others constituted <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">14.77%, 13.89% and 13.71% respectively<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">. Xyalidae, Desmodoridae, Comesomatidae and Linhomoeidae were the most dominant families of nematodes. These families were represented in all the depths. The abundance of nematodes showed a decrease with increase in depth (207.7±19.2 no. of ind. /10 cm2 at 30-50 m depth to 34.6±6.5 no. of ind. /10cm2 at >175 m depth). Similarly the number species also decreased with increase in depth (from 151 species at 30-50 m depth to 58 species at >175 m depth). More number of species were found in the Southern part of the study area than the Northern part.