The First International Workshop to Marine and Anchialine Meiofauna in Lanzarote 2011

This special issue of Marine Biodiversity features eight articles that represent the results of the First International Workshop to Marine and Anchialine Meiofauna in Lanzarote. This scientific workshop, held between 4th and 20th October 2011, involved a comprehensive survey of the most representative marine and anchialine habitats around the island of Lanzarote. Marine sampling included seven sandy beaches of different hydrodynamic state, three open caves mostly containing mud and coarse sand, and four open subtidal stations with different kinds of sediments. Sampling in the anchialine water bodies focused on the three flooded sections of La Corona lava tube: Cueva de Los Lagos, Los Jameos del Agua lake, and Túnel de la Atlántida, the world’s longest flood lava tube. This last section includes Montaña de Arena, the only truly interstitial anchialine habitat known in the island, situated 750 m within the cave. Sampling along La Corona lava tube was accompanied by the inspection of two complexes of anchialine pools (Charcos de Luis and Charcos de Montaña Bermeja) and the anchialine wells at Los Agujeros saltwork