THE IMPORTANCE OF JUVENILES IN STRUCTURING A LITTORAL MACROBENTHIC COMMUNITY

The techniques of collecting, extracting and counting of meiobenthos w ere applied to the study of juvenile macrobenthos in soft sediments. T he vertical and horizontal distribution of juvenile and adult macroben thos, and the influence of various factors (i.e. tidal level, granulom etric composition of sediments, plant biomass, moisture, organic conte nt of sediments, etc.) on their distribution have been investigated. C ombinations of these factors differ in their influence on species, dep ending on the animals' ontogenetic type (with or without pelagic larva e) and individual size. The spatial distributions of juveniles and adu lts were found to be different for macrobenthos with a pelagic stage i n the life cycle. In contrast to this, juveniles and adults of species with direct development have more similar distribution patterns.