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Bett BJ
Characteristic benthic size spectra: potential sampling artefacts
Marine benthic organisms are classified into size categories — micro-, nano-, meio-, macro- and megafauna. These groups are usually identified in practical terms by the sieve mesh size used to collect them. Bett challenges the widespread perception that macro- and meiofaunal organisms in seafloor sediments form separate size-frequency distributions. He suggests a mechanism by which these ‘characteristic size spectra’ are produced from continuous distributions as a sampling artefact. This may stimulate more integrated assessments of benthic invertebrate communities, with a macroecological modelling approach.
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