Sessions

Diversity is fun-ctional

Adriana Spedicato, spedicato@univ-brest.fr; Univ Brest, CNRS, IRD, Ifremer, Plouzané, France

Elisa Baldrighi, ebaldrighi@unr.edu, University of Nevada, Reno (USA)

Diversity can be investigated with an array of often complementary approaches. Taxonomy alone provides information on species richness and distribution through space and time, whereas functionality links the species identity to its role in the community and in the ecosystem, possibly highlighting the interplay between environmental conditions and species function. Functional ecology and namely Trait-based Approaches (TBAs) gained prominence in the last decades. The most used traits in meiofauna research are derived from animal’s morphological features, life strategy and trophic preferences. So far, numerous traits have been proposed as efficient descriptors for nematodes, which are the most studied taxon. A knowledge gap still persists on the type of trait suitable for many other permanent meiofauna taxa and no transversal trait has been tested yet. TBAs in meiofauna still need refinement and testing, which require laboratory experiments and consequent validation of existing traits and potential new ones. A recurrent question is whether TBAs be privileged over taxonomy or if both are needed, as they provide complementary information and often reveal different diversity patterns. For this session, we aim to attract potential speakers comparing taxonomic and functional diversity for several different taxa, with the aim of gathering information on the complementarity of the approaches.

A fundamental challenge in functional approaches is to scale the information obtained at a community level up to the ecosystem level. Morphological traits as those currently used for nematodes allow understanding how the environment filters for specific morphologies, though directly linking those different features to functions relevant at the ecosystem level is yet to be done. According to the special issue by Moens et al., (2022) stemming from the last International Meiofauna Conference (SeventIMCO), “The next step (implicitly “in functional traits research”) will be the translation of these results to ecosystem functions in which meiofauna are involved”. With this session at the 19th IMCO, we thus aim at understanding how the scientific community is responding to this challenge. A current hot topic in meiofauna and in research in general is how imagery, AI and machine learning can contribute to improving our understanding of the world. In this session, researchers using and developing modern tools are welcome to present their newest approaches. Are those technologies currently speeding up meiofauna analyses? For addressing meiofauna functional ecology, in this session we’re looking for contributions on TBAs, on interaction with benthic compartments (microbes and macrofauna) and its importance in biogeochemical cycles.

First and foremost, the purpose of this session is to have an overview of currently used functional approaches in meiofauna, from TBAs to experimental setups and modern approaches such as AI and machine learning. We would like to receive contributions from researchers to increase our fundamental understanding of the physiological and behavioral responses of meiofauna to environmental changes, spanning from responses to abiotic drivers to interactions with microbes, macrofauna and bioturbation. Studies from coastal to deep-sea, from tropical to Antarctic are welcome to compare spatial patterns of functional diversity and fuel our discussion.

Ecological functions of Meiofauna in benthic ecosystems: The mediators between microbial loop and macrofauna 

Li-Lee Chew; Faculty of Applied Sciences, UCSI University, 56000 Kuala Lumpur

Brian Chew Bo En; Faculty of Applied Sciences, UCSI University, 56000 Kuala Lumpur

Meiofauna, the hidden invertebrates that are always found in the benthic environments, serve as an important component of the food-webs transferring the energy source from the microbial loop to higher trophic level consumers such as macroinvertebrates and fish.  Meiofauna also constitute the ecological engineers in organic matter decomposition as well as nutrient cycling. While the ecological roles of meiofauna in benthic ecosystems are well acknowledged, how these microscopic animals contribute to benthic trophodynamics and nutrient cycling is still poorly understood. This simply because the ecological processes of benthic ecosystems are complex and involve multiple abiotic and biotic components which are difficult to determine. This session is open to the studies on the ecological aspects of meiofauna in benthic ecosystems such as stable isotopes and fatty acids as food tracers, DNA metabarcoding, as well as any researches that are relevant to this session.

Trophic transfer and Biomagnification of Emerging contaminants in Aquatic Food Webs

Abhishek Biswas, ab21rs029@iiserkol.ac.in; IISER Kolkata, India

Arnab Majumdar, arnab.majumdar@imperial.ac.uk; Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom

Nirupama Saini, nirupamasaini15@gmail.com; IISER Kolkata, India

Emerging contaminants such as heavy metals, microplastics, and their additives are now widespread across diverse environmental settings, including soil, air, and aquatic ecosystems. Aquatic ecosystems serve as the ultimate sink for these contaminants. A significant proportion of these contaminants make their way to aquatic ecosystems, where they interact with the surrounding biota. Once ingested or absorbed by lower trophic levels, these contaminants can undergo trophic transfer and biomagnification, ultimately accumulating in organisms higher up the food chain. This process can pose serious ecological risks, impacting biodiversity, food safety, and human health. Understanding these pathways is crucial for addressing key environmental challenges and is directly related to global sustainability efforts, such as UN Sustainable Development Goals 2 (Zero Hunger), 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), and 14 (Life Below Water). In this session, we invite submissions from early-career researchers, ecologists, environmental scientists, and microbiologists from Asia and beyond. We are particularly interested in studies addressing the detection, fate, and toxicity of microplastics, heavy metals, and other contaminants with an emphasis on trophic-level interactions. Research focusing on meiofauna (e.g., nematodes, copepods), macrofauna (e.g., fish, shrimps, crabs), and microbial communities, as well as their associated implications for human health, is highly encouraged.  We encourage a range of methodological approaches, including field-based studies, laboratory experiments, and modeling-based analysis.

The importance of benthic fauna towards tracking anthropogenic changes in global oceans

Punyasloke Bhadury, pbhadury@iiserkol.ac.in; Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, India

Xiaoshou Liu, liuxs@ouc.edu.cn; Ocean University of China, China

Oceans influence the climate of our earth and sustain socio-economics of millions of people globally. From land-ocean boundary to deep-sea, organismal biodiversity holds the key to sustaining health of ocean ecosystems. Benthic macro- and meiofauna that dominate sedimentary environments from coast to deep abyss play important roles including trophic interactions, microbial facilitation and cycling of carbon and nitrogen. Increasingly, oceans globally are facing changes due to increasing anthropogenic activities including overfishing, exploitation of marine bioresources and release of pollutants including microplastics. These are affecting the health of our oceans at unprecedented scales like never before. In addition, increasing natural disturbances (e.g. cyclones, storm surge, changes in monsoonal patterns) are also affecting ocean ecosystems. Benthic faunal communities are more sensitive, respond to natural and anthropogenic disturbances in terms of biological traits as well as some species are sensitive to disturbances. Some benthic faunal groups are resilient and disturbance adapted and thus can be excellent proxy to track changes in modern oceans. In this session we welcome submissions looking at the use of benthic fauna to track anthropogenic disturbances from coastal ocean to deep-sea sedimentary environments. Also, submissions are welcome that looks at the effect of natural disturbances on oceanic realms as well as ecosystem level responses to disturbances using benthic fauna as proxy are particularly welcome as part of this session. Early-career researchers such as biologists, biogeochemists, taxonomists, evolutionary biologists, and ecosystem modellers working in the broad area of benthic ecology and linking towards understanding of ocean health and processes including trophic food web, biogeochemical cycling and other ecosystem processes are encouraged to submit their abstracts in this session. Submissions pertaining to emerging areas of benthic faunal research that integrate new tools and approaches (e.g. next-generation sequencing, digital taxonomy, 3D imaging) to address the health of modern oceans or improves our understanding of patterns and processes linked to benthic ecology including community structures from ocean environments such as deep-sea are also welcome in this session. Abstracts are particularly welcome from early career researchers (ECRs) working in the area of meiofauna research including from the Global South.

Biomonitoring of benthic communities from soil to deep-sea: harnessing the power of environmental DNA (eDNA) 

Punyasloke Bhadury, pbhadury@iiserkol.ac.in; Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata

Amit Kumar, amit.kumar.szn@gmail.com; Sathyabama University, India

Gauraw Kumar, gauraw79c@gmail.com; National Forensic Sciences University, India

Benthic communities including meiofauna represent key component of ecosystems such as soil, coastal sediment or deep sea sediment and influences critical ecosystem level processes such as biogeochemical cycling of carbon and nitrogen. Besides, microbial communities interact with meiofauna across these ecosystems and influence tropic transfer of energy.  However, identification of benthic communities, in particular meiofauna represent taxonomic intractability. Environmental DNA (eDNA) based metabarcoding or metagenome based high throughput sequencing offers potential solution towards identification of benthic communities, understand ecological processes including interactions such as symbiosis or mutualism among meiofauna and microbes. Besides, eDNA based approaches can help towards tracking the responses of benthic communities to stressors including pollutants and offer an assessment of the state of ‘health’ of functional ecosystems. In this session, we welcome contributions from early career researchers and scientists working on eDNA based approaches to understand health of ecosystems, biodiversity of metazoan communities and also responses of benthic communities to natural or anthropogenic stressors in extreme environments including deep ocean.