Meiofauna monitoring in the Trieste harbour, northern Adriatic Sea (Port Authority), 2013 and 2015

Meiofauna monitoring in the Trieste harbour, Northern Adriatic Sea (Port Authority), 2013 and 2015. In June 2013 and March 2015, sampling was carried out in the harbour of the Trieste port by a KC Haps bottom corer with polycarbonate sample tubes (12.7 cm I.D. with a sample area of 127 cm2). In laboratory, one sediment core was subsampled by means of 3 cut-off plastic syringes (2.7 cm I.D., surface area of 5.72 cm2, 0-10 cm top sediment) in order to obtain three pseudoreplicates for the meiofauna. Meiofaunal organisms (38–1000 m) were extracted from sediment subsamples by sieving each pseudoreplicate and by centrifuging the material retained by a 38 μm mesh net with Ludox HS-40 (density of 1.15–1.18 g cm−3). All meiobenthic organisms were counted and taxonomically classified to the main groups under a stereomicroscope (Olympus SZX12; final magnification of × 32-40)