Meiofauna from the Meloria Shoals: Gastrotricha, biodiversity and seasonal dynamics

The gastotrichs taxocene from the Meloria Shoals was studied over one year period from four sets of samples each consisting of four replicate cores filled with 15 cni' of coarse organogenic sand. San2ples avere taken from a bottoni pit, at 7.0 m water depth, three months apart each other. Faunal analysis yielded 18 species and mean density of 228 ind/core. The highest number o.fspecies, 16, occurred in Ju1y while the Shannon- Wiener entropy (H') peaked in October (2.112). Diplodasys ankeli and Platydasys ruber resulted as the most abundant taxa throughout the study except in January when Platydasy ocellatus became the dominant species. species richness and high biodiversity of the locai meiofauna make the shallow Meloria shoals a place of great naturalistic value, worth to be preserved.