Re: How would you go about collecting samples of meiofauna in the sand?

It sounds like you are on the right track! The definition of meiofauna requires that the animals pass through a 1mm mesh, but not a 0.45 mm mesh, so your filtration method is good. The size and type of the meiofauna you collect will be determined primarily by the size of the sand particles at your collection site. They typically stick to the sand, so rinse it well. Also, the most animals should be found in the top few to top 10 cm of sand or sediment. They are typically much more abundant in estuaries. Do you have any salt marshes around?

As for your sampling method... a shovel should work. No coring devices are necessary unless you are trying to evaluate the number of animals per cubic cm of sand precisely.

Happy hunting!

Dr. T

Admin note:
Long long ago.. in high shcool even.. we collected small worms (in phylum Gnathostomulida) from beach sand. Like other species of the meiofauna, they live in the interstitial spaces, literally between grains of sand. We first washed beach sand with *sterile saline* - don't use sea water as it will contaminate your samples with ocean-going critters. Distilled water should work too. Run your slurry through a 1mm filter, and secondarily though a filter smaller than .04mm, as above. It helps to have a microscope to view the creatures you isolate on the second filter.