Meiobenthic colonisation of soft sediments in arctic glacial Kongsfjorden (Svalbard)

An in situ experiment on metazoan meiofauna colonisation and succession was carried out at Brandal (78°56.88′N, 11°51.63′E), situated in arctic glacial Kongsfjorden (Spitsbergen). 28 soft sediment containers were deployed at a depth of 20 m and sampled after a one-, two- and three-year immersion period. The main taxonomic groups, abundance of colonising meiofauna and sediment parameters are described and compared. Meiofauna communities at Brandal show the highest densities reported for inner Kongsfjorden to date. While the samples from the three experimental periods and the ambient sediments did not differ in total individual numbers, the treatments showed marked differences in community structure as ascertained by ANOSIM based on Bray Curtis and cosine similarity. An extended three-year period was required until the community stage comparable to ambient sediments was reached. This leads to the assumption that long recovery and colonisation times can be expected for polar shallow water meiofauna.