Distribution and abundance of macrobenthic and meiobenthic organisms

Abstract

The assemblage of macrobenthic and meiobenthic invertebrates were investigated along transects radiating out from two oil platforms off the Texas coast. From the Discussion: “Distributional data, cluster analysis, and principal components analysis all indicate the macrobenthic abundances were relatively uniform throughout the Buccaneer Field study area…The macrobenthic data also indicate that assemblages around the platforms were different than most of those in the study area. The near-platform stations had depressed faunas, had a relatively high species turnover rate, and had a few species that were more frequently found there than in the remainder of the field. The meiobenthic assemblages may also have been depressed around the platforms, but the fewer data and large densities close to platform 288-A followed by smaller numbers away from the platform make the data difficult to interpret.”