INTERRELATIONSHIPS IN COMMUNITY STRUCTURE BETWEEN SHALLOW-WATER MARINE MEIOFAUNA AND MACROFAUNA IN RELATION TO DREDGINGS DISPOSAL

Patterns in community structure of macrofauna (Day grab samples), nema todes (Craib core samples and subsamples from Day grabs) and copepods (Craib core samples) along a transect through a dredgings disposal sit e in Liverpool Bay, UK, are compared, and related to a range of enviro nmental measurements. Disposal of dredged material at the site has dif ferent effects on different components of the benthos. Nematodes are m ore sensitive to sediment structure and the ongoing disposal of dredgi ngs at the site, but the method used to sample them influences the per ceived pattern of impact. Subsampling from grabs is not found to be an adequate method of sampling meiofauna in studies designed to examine details of changes in community structure, although such samples may b e sufficient for detecting that substantial changes have occurred. Mac rofauna are more sensitive to concentrations of metals and longer term events at the site.