Meiofaunal assemblages in the mangrove habitat in Taklong Island, Nueva Valencia, Guimaras

Abstract

Meiofauna are metazoans that can pass through a sieve with a mesh of 0.5mm but retained in a mesh of 0.063mm sieve. These organism are interesting to benthic scientist due to its capacity to determine the extent of pollution in the area and its role in the food web of an ecosystem. This study aims (1) to come up with a list of meiofaunal species present in the mangrove substratum, (2) to determine its density and abundance, and (3) to describe the meiofaunal environment in terms of temperature, salinity , pH, and oxygen content.

The study was conducted in the mangrove habitat in Taklong Island Guimaras in February 1997. Thirty core samples were collected with a modified PVC core ( diameter=2.0 cm, length=15cm) from 3 areas: seaward, middle, and landward portions of the mangrove.

There were eight broad groupings of meiofauna considered: nematodes, copepods, malacostracans, polychaetes, gastrotrichs, kinorhynchs, sipunculids, and others (including forams). The nematodes, of which there were 2 species observed, were the most abundant and comprised 42.14%. The copepods had 3 species observed and comprised 31.05%, 2 species of polychaetes comprised 5.04%,2species of gastrotrychs comprised 3.86% and malacostracans were 6.66%, kinorhynchs were 3.26%, and sipunculids were 0.89%. Unidentified organism which included foraminiferans, were 8.01 %.

Range of meiofaunal density (number of individuals per cm'3 ) in three transects were 0.0042-0.1549 in the seaward area,0.0085-0.0785 in the middle area and 0.0021-0.0679 in the landward area. The nematodes had the highest density, and the sipunculids had the lowest density from the seaward to the landward area.