Study On Biomass Size Spectra Of Macro-and Meiofuana At Typical Stations In The East China Sea And Yellow Sea

Features of biomass size spectra of macro- and meiofauna were studied at typical stations in the East China Sea and Yellow Sea. The mean abundance, biomass and annual production of meiofauna was 1087.3 ?561.5 ind.l0cm-2, 0.61 ?0.30 gdwt.m-2 and 5.5 ?2.7 gdwt. m-2a-1respectively. And that of macrofauna was 1239 ?639.6 indm-2, 6.4 ?6.5 gdwtm-2 and 9.5 ?8.6 gdwt.m^a"1 respectively. The patterns of size spectra were similar at different stations, in spite of great difference on total biomass. Two peaks occurred at 125-500 #rn equivalent spherical diameter(ESD) and 8-16 mm. It were separated by typically low biomass at 1-2 mm ESD. The peaks corresponded to meiofauna and macrofauna respectively. The results of this study supported the typical bimodal pattern of benthic biomass size spectra in literature. Mechanisms for maintaining trough in size spectra were discussed in this paper. A hypothesis was put forward that the trough might partly derive from methodological deficiency. Sieving method on constructing benthic size spectra was also discussed. The linear relation between logVmean and logLmean value of nematodes on certain sieve and the logarithm of its mesh size logm was obtained: logVmean=1.3951ogm - 2.832 , logLmean=0.5751ogm + 1.885 . These formulas should be considered as local relations. In ecosystems quite different from the ones studied, the use of these relations requires a certain caution.