Life Between Grains

About 90% of the ocean floor is made of sediments, which include grains of mud, sand and gravel which are constantly moved by the action of currents, tides and waves. This apparently uninhabited environment reveals an enormous diversity of life forms. In the tiny space between the sediment grains there is an abundant and diverse fauna, invisible to the naked eye. They are small organisms, smaller than 1 mm, termed as meiofauna. Approximately 15,000 meiofauna species are described. It is estimated that the