Meiobenthos Composition and Structure in Highly Mineralized Tributaries of Lake El'ton

摘要

The meiobenthos of six tributaries of the hypergaline Lake El'ton (the Volgograd region) in the low-flow period (August) has been researched for the first time. New species have been found for science, Russia, and the region. Widespread halophilic andhalobiontic organisms formed the basis of the community, which was characterized by the relatively low diversity and an extremely wide range of abundance and biomass with the strong domination of some species. The tendency of the species richness to decrease with increasing mineralization from the meso- to eu- and hypergaline level was observed.