Production of meiofauna in an Australian estuary

The age categories, sexes and sizes of a sub-sample of 120 free living nematodes from a mangrove ecosystem in the Hunter Region estuary, were determined from four seasonal samples. The proportion of adult makes and juveniles in the population and thier mean size changed from season to season. By contrast, neither the proportion of females nor their mean size changed over the course of the year. The mean size of all individuals in the population also did not change over time. Total biomass of nematodes at the study site was about 0.1 to 0.2g C m¯² . The ratio of annual production to biomass was calculated to be about 50 using previously published empirical formulae relating to temperature and adult female biomass to production. Annual production was therefore calculated at about 4 to 6g C m¯² yr¹. Ingestion was calculated at about 100 to 300g C m ¯² yr¹. These figures represent a substantial component of estuarine energy flow when compared with production estimates for other parts of the estuarine food web from the most similar estuaries for which data are available.