What does a meiobenthologist research?

My research field is an interesting topic to explain to people, and when I talk to others about the field, the best response I get is a smile and nod, which is courteous while letting me know that what I've said has not made sense. I thought I'd spend this week's post explaining a little of what we do in the field, what my PI, Dr. Jeroen Ingels does, and where my research fits into the field of meiobenthology.

To start, meiobenthology is the combination of two studies in biology: meiofauna are animals smaller than 1 mm and generally larger than 32 micrometers--for those who study deep-sea organisms--and are a very understudied group of marine organisms; benthos is the term for the sea floor, which is either hard substrate, good for coral reefs, or soft substrate, which is sandy. The work of meiobenthologists, therefore, combines the two studies into the study of meiofauna that live on (or in) the ocean sediments and substrates. Work in the field of meiobenthology can be classified into two areas, in my opinion: environmental science and community ecology. Some meiobenthologists conduct research to assess how infrastructure, shoreline development, and drilling affects marine systems by using the presence or absence of specific meiofauna taxa as indicators of environmental health. Other meiobenthologists are interested in understanding the immense diversity of the size class, and conduct work to identify species of organisms.

​The work that we do at the Meiolab (check out Dr. Ingels instagram @meiolab) is mostly environmental science work. Dr. Ingels conducts most of his work on deep-sea meiofauna, but is hired to conduct environmental impact assessments across the country. We use the presence meiofauna taxa to make suggestions about the health of different marine communities. Dr. Ingels also collaborates with meiobenthologists across the world to answer questions about what marine life exists in extreme places, like the Antarctic ice shelf.

My personal research agenda focuses on using nematodes (one specific taxa of meiofauna) as ecological indicators to assess how microplastics pollution is affecting coastal ecosystems. Most work on microplastics has focused on the ingestion of plastics and how the small particles accumulate in food webs, but I am more interested in how the microparticles may alter nutrient availability in coastal ecosystems. I hope that my work can help broaden public understanding of the long-term risks of single-use plastics and inform better environmental standards when it comes to wastewater treatment and waste disposal.