INFLUENCE OF ARTIFICIAL REEF BALL REEFS FROM THE XPICOB COVE ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE MEIOFAUNA AND RECENT SEDIMENTS

Abstract

Meiofauna carries out an important role as environmental indicator and as main component in trophic chains, which is why the meiofauna present in the artificial Reef Ball reefs in the Xpicob cove was analyzed, in the coastal zone of Campeche, México, which covers a small portion of sea enclosed by a nose formed by the cove and which occupies a stretch of sea close to 500 m in its widest part. The study was done in July, August and September, 2012; the samples were collected with scuba diving at six meters depth. The diversity of the meiofauna was measured at the level of large groups of meiofauna, and the size of the grain and sphericity of sediments was measured. The most abundant group was nematodes (52.7 %) followed by foraminifera (23 %), and the less abundant groups were crustacean (0.05 %) and other non-identified (0.27 %) nautilus.