The Meiofauna Conferences

Meiobenthologists and visiters of this page probably are informed that the next Internacional Meiofauna Conference will be hold in Brazil, more exactly in Recife.

The event organization has been jointly organized by the Research Groups on Meiofauna from Brazil and will begin in excatly 6 months and 6 days (take a look in the countdown in our site!).

From now, accompany with attention the information that will be added here by Meiofauna Brasil, specially the deadline for abstracts, conference programme, etc.

The meiobenthologists internacional meetings (conferences) begun officially in Tunisia, in 1969, when 28 researchers joined to discuss taxonomy and ecology of meiobenthos. The second meeting occurred 4 years later, in 1973, at York (England). From that year the meiobenthologists used to be meet in regular periods (each 3 years) and the event has been incresing in terms of number of participants and works presented.

Until the present moment 12 Conferences were realized:

1. : Tunis (Tunisia) - 1969
2. : York (England) - 1973
3. : Hamburg (Germany) - 1977
4. : Columbia (USA) - 1980
5. : Gent (Belgium) - 1983
6. : SIMCO: Tampa (USA) - 1986
7. : SVIMCO: Viena (Austria) - 21st to 25th August 1989
8. : EIMCO: Maryland (EUA) - 9th to 14th August 1992
9. : NIMCO: Perpignan (France) - 3rd to 7th July 1995
10. : XIMCO: Plymouth (England) - 27th to 31st July 1998
11. : ELIMCO: Boston (USA) - 15th to 20th July 2001
12. : TWIMCO: Ravenna (Itália) - 11st to 16th July 2004

The last conference, in Ravenna, joint more than 200 researchers from very diverse places and during the meeting was decided that for the first time the event will be carried out in the Southern Hemisphere. The THIRIMCO will be hold in Recife Palace Hotel from 29th July to 2rd August 2007.

The web site of the event is on line for some months and can be visited using our permanent link or here.

The registration for the conference is open and the promocional registration fee will be until 1st May 2007. AT the same way the abstract model is also on-line on the event site.

Visit the site and hope see you all in Recife!

Meiofauna and its History...

The study of meiofauna is a late component of benthic research. despite the fact that meiobenthic animals have been known since the early days of microscopy (meiofauna and meiobenthos are largely used in this book as synonyms). While the terms macrofauna and microfauna had been long established. it was not until 1942 that "meiofauna" was used by MAREto define an assemblage of mobile or hapto-sessile benthic invertebrates (meiobenthos) distinguished from macrobenthos by their small size. Earlier. most researchers had referred to typical meiobenthic animals as microfauna. Derived from the Greek “meio” meaning smaller. members of the meiofauna are mobile. sometimes also hapto-sessile benthic animals. smaller than macrofauna. but larger than microfauna (a term now restricted mostly to Protozoa). Today. the size boundaries of meiobenthos are based on the standardized mesh width of sieves with 500 µm (1000 µm)as upper and 42 µm (63 µm) as lower limits: all fauna passing the coarse sieve but retained by the finer sieve during sieving is considered meiofauna. Gastrotricha, Gnathostomulida, Kinorhyncha, Loricifera and Tardigrada are exclusively meiobenthic groups.

* 1900-1950:

- First researches on meiofauna: regional taxonomic/ sistematic/ morphological descriptions of single groups, e.g., the interstitial opisthobranchs Microhedylidae or the nematodespopilating North American shores

- Between 1911 and 1935, more investigators became enumerated all taxa; but it was Remane, the “father of meiofauna research” who, on the basis of complete sampligs, fisrt recognized the rich populations in intertidal beaches, sbtidal sands, and muds and algal habitats as definable ecological assemblages

- In 1935, a british scientisti, Nicholls, studying the copepods of a Scottish sandy beach, introduced the term “interstitial fauna”

- During the 1930s – 1950s the Swedish marine biologist Swedmark originated studies on the systematics and ecology of the marine interstitial fauna, particularly the Gastrotricha

* 1950 – 1960:

- Period of accelerated interest in Meiofaunal systematics and Descriptive Ecology

* 1960-1970:

- During this period meiofauna studies enjoyed rapid growth due to a variety of factors: more scientists working on meiofauna, a renewed interest in the ecology of the animals, the development of meiobenthic research, better sampling and extracting techniques and better communication amongst meiobenthologists via the “Association of Meiobenthologists” and the Association’s Newsletter Psammonalia

- The first two-page issue of Psammonalia was mimeographed and mailed in November, 1966 by R. P. Higgins and D. J. Zinn

- During this period two general types of meiofaunal studies dominated: descriptive ecology and broadened taxonomic knowledge of various meiofaunal taxa from various habitats

* 1970-1980:

- Pollution effects on meiofauna were studied in the laboratory and in the field

- In the 1970s – 1980s a phylogenetic perspective experienced a broader emphasis


* From the 1980s:

- Researches improved in the all areas. Genetic and molecular studies have been used on the taxonomic and phylogenetic researches. More and more species have been discovered and described; and the deep sea has shown an extremely interesting and unknown fauna