Introduction to Marine Nematodes and the East China Sea

Abstract

Free-living marine nematodes represent the most widely distributed, abundant and diverse metazoan group. In general, they are the most advantage group in the ocean meiofauna; usually there are millions of nematodes in every square metre of the soft-soled sediment. They can occupy different trophic levels and play an important role in energy flow and material cycle in benthic ecosystem. The changes of their abundance and biodiversity have great significance in dynamic monitoring of the benthic environment. Nematodes have already been employed in biomonitoring studies and turned out to be suitable indicators for pollution-induced disturbances of benthic ecosystems.