What are benthic macrofauna?
Benthic animals are those associated with the bottom of seas, rivers, lakes, etc. Epibenthos lives on the surface and infauna buried within the sediment. Macrofauna is larger and meiofauna smaller. The benthos is divided into three size groups. Microbenthos are the single celled animals, macrobenthos are animals large enough to be retained on a screen with mesh size of 1 or 0.5 mm and meiobenthos, an ill defined group of a size between these two. Worms, shells, shrimps and other crustaceans are the most common animals in the macrobenthos. The macrobenthos is an important component of the estuarine environment.A large proportion of the estuarine habitat’s biodiversity is found in the benthic community. Many of the worms, shrimps, snails and bivalves are important food sources for fish and birds. Without the benthos these animals can not survive. For these reasons alone the benthos deserves to be studied. However, there are other advantages for studying the benthos over the fish, bird or
