Abstracto
- The abundance and diversity of the meiobenthic community are subject to wave dynamics, a product of intertidal morphodynamics. In the sandy beaches of El Rompío and Los Guayaberos, Panama, separated by a jetty, the morphodynamics and meiobenthos were determined, collected with a 25.49 mm diameter PVC corer, inserted 5 cm into the sediment, between August 2019 and 2020, in monthly visits at low syzygy tide. The samples and their repetitions were taken at two stations in the lower mesolittoral and infralittoral, located in a transept 150 m from a breakwater. The objective of the study was to verify the effect of the jetty on the morphodynamics and the dissipation of wave energy on meiobenthos. 29 taxa were collected on both beaches and diversity differences between them were observed. With the morphodynamic data, the erosion indicators were calculated and related to the organisms. In El Rompío beach, with fine sand, with an accretive trend, only the rate of breakage (γb ) was related to nematodes, while at Los Guayaberos, with medium sand and an erosional trend, the relationship between the rate of breakage (γb ) was with oligochaetes and the erosion factor (Er ) with nematodes. The presence of the breakwater and the circulation pattern defined the energy of the waves on the two beaches and affected the morphodynamics and granulometry that determined the variation in the abundance and diversity of meiobenthos.