Meiofauna international workshop 'MeioScool 2013: a dive into a microscopic world'

摘要

This issue contains selected studies presented during the Meiofauna International Workshop "MeioScool 2013: a dive in a microscopic world", held in Brest, France, 26-29 November 2013. The main objectives of MeioScool were to bring together several meiofaunal experts in several meiofauna-related sub-disciplines from around the world in order to increase awareness among researchers, students and the general public of the fundamental role of meiofauna in marine ecosystems from the coastal zone to abyssal depths; and to train students and researchers in the identification and description of meiofauna through several complementary disciplines (taxonomy, ecology, molecular biology), and stimulate a new generation of meiobenthologists. The MeioScool workshop lasted 4 days. The first 2 days were devoted to conferences, while the other 2 days were focused on field and laboratory work (sampling, extraction, morphological and molecular identification of major meiofaunal taxonomic groups). The workshop attracted 126 scientists and students from 26 countries to study a wide range of aspects and topics related to meiofauna. This Special Issue of Marine Biodiversity presents selected results of the workshop, grouped in sections by topic as follows: 1) meiofauna taxonomy, with six contributions; 2) meiofauna ecology, with seven contributions; and 3) meiofauna sampling and identification methods, with three contributions.