Does Morphology of Host Marine Macroalgae Drive the Ecological Structure of Epiphytic Meiofauna?

Does Morphology of Host Marine Macroalgae Drive the Ecological Structure of Epiphytic Meiofauna?

We explored the relationships between the epiphytic meiofauna and the morphology of five host macroalgae species. Four morphological attributes of the macroalgae (fractal complexity, area, perimeter, and amount of trapped sediment) were measured and correlated with the density and diversity of meiofauna and nematodes. The meiofauna was similar to epiphytic communities described in other studies with harpacticoid copepods and nematodes being the two more abundant taxa. The structural complexity of the macroalgae did not correlate with the meiofauna neither with the nematode assemblages.