Is the meiofauna a good indicator for climate change and anthropogenic impacts?

• Published in: Marine biodiversity Vol. 45; no. 3; pp. 505 - 535
• Main Authors: Zeppilli, Daniela, Sarrazin, Jozée, Leduc, Daniel, Arbizu, Pedro Martinez, Fontaneto, Diego, Fontanier, Christophe, Gooday, Andrew J., Kristensen, Reinhardt Møbjerg, Ivanenko, Viatcheslav N., Sørensen, Martin V., Vanreusel, Ann, Thébault, Julien, Mea, Marianna, Allio, Noémie, Andro, Thomas, Arvigo, Alexandre, Castrec, Justine, Danielo, Morgan, Foulon, Valentin, Fumeron, Raphaelle, Hermabessiere, Ludovic, Hulot, Vivien, James, Tristan, Langonne-Augen, Roxanne, Le Bot, Tangi, Long, Marc, Mahabror, Dendy, Morel, Quentin, Pantalos, Michael, Pouplard, Etienne, Raimondeau, Laura, Rio-Cabello, Antoine, Seite, Sarah, Traisnel, Gwendoline, Urvoy, Kevin, Van Der Stegen, Thomas, Weyand, Mariam, Fernandes, David
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.09.2015; Springer Nature B.V; Springer Verlag
• Subjects: Acclimatization; Animal Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography; Anthropogenic factors; Aquatic crustaceans; Benthos; Biodiversity; Biodiversity and Ecology; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Climate change; Coastal ecology; Deep sea; Deep water; Ecological effects; Ecologists; Ecosystems; Environmental Sciences; Food chains; Food webs; Freshwater & Marine Ecology; Genetics; Human influences; Life Sciences; Marine ecosystems; Meiobenthos; Meiofauna; Meioscool; Plant Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography; Sediments; Taxonomy; Mediterranean Sea; Meiofauna; Anthropogenic impacts; Climate change; Biomonitoring; Natural observations and experimental studies; ACL; Climate Change
• ISSN: 1867-1616; 1867-1624
• DOI: 10.1007/s12526-015-0359-z

Our planet is changing, and one of the most pressing challenges facing the scientific community revolves around understanding how ecological communities respond to global changes. From coastal to deep-sea ecosystems, ecologists are exploring new areas of research to find model organisms that help predict the future of life on our planet. Among the different categories of organisms, meiofauna offer several advantages for the study of marine benthic ecosystems. This paper reviews the advances in the study of meiofauna with regard to climate change and anthropogenic impacts. Four taxonomic groups are valuable for predicting global changes: foraminifers (especially calcareous forms), nematodes, copepods and ostracods. Environmental variables are fundamental in the interpretation of meiofaunal patterns and multistressor experiments are more informative than single stressor ones, revealing complex ecological and biological interactions. Global change has a general negative effect on meiofauna, with important consequences on benthic food webs. However, some meiofaunal species can be favoured by the extreme conditions induced by global change, as they can exhibit remarkable physiological adaptations. This review highlights the need to incorporate studies on taxonomy, genetics and function of meiofaunal taxa into global change impact research.