Colonization of meiobenthos on artificial substrates introduced to bottom sediment of UMT creek

Abstract

This project was done to study the colonization rate of different taxa of meiobenthos towards the artificial substrates that will be introduced to their natural habitat. Besides that, this project was also aimed to study on the dynamics of meiofauna and their environments. This study was conducted at the creek of Universiti Malaysia Terengganu. Three types of artificial substrates were prepared which are the control treatment, the mixture of sediment and oatmeal treatment and the mixture of sediment and carrot pieces treatment. The artificial substrates were introduced to the bottom sediment of UMT creek. Samples were collected every five days of sampling and those samples were brought back to the laboratory for analysis. The meiobenthos that has been sorted out from the artificial substrates were counted and identified until its taxa. The most dominant meiobenthic fauna found in this project is from the Copepoda taxa. The most preferred artificial substrates colonized my meiobenthos in UMT Creek is the artificial substrates of mixture of sediment with carrot pieces treatment.