9314555 COULL This research project will center on determining if meiofauna are as fully integrated into sub-tropical estuarine detritus-based food webs as they are in similar temperate region food webs. This research project will be carried out in cooperation with Australian colleagues who have a long-term data record on the species composition and abundance of demersal/natant fauna in the mangrove dominated Pumicestone Passage, Moreton Bay, which is located on the central east coast of Australia. The project will first determine what species of juvenile fish utilize meiofauna as a numerically abundant diet item. Subsequently, the meiofaunal species composition in the habitats where the fish live will be determined. This data is essential to determine if the prey fauna in the guts have been eaten where the fish live and, if gut contents are consistent with the resident prey available. After these two descriptive phases of the research are completed experiments are planned to test meiofaunal removal rates by a dominant juvenile fish predator and whether certain meiofauna are being selected by bottom-feeding juvenile fish. These experiments will be conducted in microcosms in a recirculating sea-water system and will follow the protocol used in similar experiments performed previously in the PI's laboratory in South Carolina. ***
