An overview of meiofaunal and nematode distribution patterns in lake ecosystems differing in their trophic state

An Overview of Studies on Meiofaunal Traits of the Littoral Zone of Lakes

“…In lotic environments, studies on the size-spectrum of the meiofauna, i.e., displaying of biomass in logarithmical intervals of body size, are common (e.g., [43]), while in groundwater [14,44] and in lentic habitats they are much less considered. A further critical aspect is that, as regards lake meiofauna, only a few studies incorporated the species-specific biomass distribution at assemblage-and community-level and their variation within and among ecosystems (e.g., [23]).…”

“…The fact that we did not find mentions of these keywords does not necessarily mean that these traits are not attributable to the meiofauna of the littoral zones of lakes. Rather, there may be intrinsic difficulties, often insurmountable, such as those related to the movements of these tiny organisms within the hidden benthic and inbenthic world made of sand grains, interstitial pores, biofilms and detrital particles, that make direct observations difficult in the natural environment (e.g., [19,23]). The same difficulties were due to the scarcity of studies related to the "locomotion and substrate relation" trait which has been investigated almost exclusively in nematodes, rotifers, some crustaceans and gastrotrichs e.g., [55,56].…”

“…For instance, Jeppesssen et al [61] argue that a change in the meiobenthic community structure of lakes is expected as a response to drought periods. Traits as biomass and sex ratio of Nematoda was used as indicators of the effect of lake trophic status [23,54], while locomotion and substrate relation of the meiobenthic organisms of the littoral zone of lake is considered an indicator of the adaptability to changing habitat conditions [53].…”

“…Studies concerning meiofauna, published from 2000 to 2018, focused mainly on marine environments (72%) and to a lesser extent on freshwater environments (22%), while only 1% of them considered meiofauna investigations falling within the broader field of limnology [19]. Most of these studies concerned nematodes (e.g., [23]), while the remaining meiofaunal taxa have been under-examined. Finally, trait-based multimetric analyses (i.e., analyses based on the information deriving from the examination of several traits), constitute a more recent approach [24] and are not yet fully developed for all taxa of limnic meiofauna [19].…”

Duration and frequency of non‐flow periods affect the abundance and diversity of stream meiofauna

“…Traunspurger, 2000; Beier & Traunspurger, 2003a; Traunspurger, Höss, Witthöft‐Mühlmann, Wessels, & Güde, 2012). Their diverse life‐history and feeding traits link to ecosystem productivity, microbial trophic channels, and disturbance regime (Majdi et al., 2011; Traunspurger, Reiff, Krashevska, Majdi, & Scheu, 2017; Traunspurger, Wilden, & Majdi, 2020). Moreover, nematodes are abundant both in streambeds and in adjacent soils, although the structure of species assemblages seems to be distinct in aquatic versus terrestrial biotopes.…”