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The Bahía Blanca Estuary pp 153–178Cite as

The Intertidal Meiobenthos of the Bahía Blanca Estuary

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Abstract

The first studies involving the interstitial metazoan community of the Bahía Blanca Estuary started in 2007. Since then, three species of harpacticoid copepods and three species of nematodes have been described, and numerous species of turbellarians, as well as tardigrades and kinorhynchs, have been registered living in the intertidal sediments of the estuary. There is also an extensive documentation of other meiofaunal taxa that remains undetermined, due to the lack of trained taxonomists and the complexity of their systematics. Nevertheless, the study of the meiofauna was not restricted to the taxonomic aspects, and valuable information has been obtained in order to characterize the microscopic benthic community in this particular ecosystem, especially regarding the intricate relationships between taxa and their relation to the environment and associated abiotic factors. These surveys are, although still scarce, of high value, since specialists have been increasingly using the meiofauna as a bioindicator of the environmental quality on coastal marine systems. This contribution reveals many species new to science suggesting that the meiofaunal biodiversity of the Bahía Blanca Estuary remains underestimated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Ciencias Biológicas y Biomédicas del Sur, INBIOSUR (Universidad Nacional del Sur, CONICET), Bahía Blanca, Argentina

    Verónica N. Bulnes

  2. Zoología de Invertebrados I. Departamento de Biología, Bioquímica y Farmacia. Universidad Nacional del Sur, Bahía Blanca, Argentina

    Verónica N. Bulnes, Agustín G. Menechella & Michel Sciberras

  3. Instituto Argentino de Oceanografía, IADO (Universidad Nacional del Sur, CONICET), Bahía Blanca, Argentina

    Agustín G. Menechella

  4. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas y Tecnológicas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, CONICET, IIBYT, Córdoba, Argentina

    Kevin A. Rucci

Authors
  1. Verónica N. Bulnes
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  2. Agustín G. Menechella
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  3. Kevin A. Rucci
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  4. Michel Sciberras
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Verónica N. Bulnes .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Argentino de Oceanografía IADO (Universidad Nacional del Sur-CONICET), Departamento de Biología, Bioquímica y Farmacia, Universidad Nacional del Sur, Bahía Blanca, Argentina

    Sandra M. Fiori

  2. Centro de Recursos Naturales Renovables de la Zona Semiárida, CERZOS (Universidad Nacional del Sur-CONICET), Departamento de Biología, Bioquímica y Farmacia, Universidad Nacional del Sur, Bahía Blanca, Argentina

    Paula D. Pratolongo

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Bulnes, V.N., Menechella, A.G., Rucci, K.A., Sciberras, M. (2021). The Intertidal Meiobenthos of the Bahía Blanca Estuary. In: Fiori, S.M., Pratolongo, P.D. (eds) The Bahía Blanca Estuary. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66486-2_7

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