What is "meiobenthos"

n. (context biology English) benthic organisms between .1 mm and 1 mm in size.

Meiobenthos, also called meiofauna, are small benthic invertebrates that live in both marine and fresh water environments. The term meiofauna loosely defines a group of organisms by their size, larger than microfauna but smaller than macrofauna, rather than a taxonomic grouping. In practice, that is organisms that can pass through a 1 mm mesh but will be retained by a 45 μm mesh, but the exact dimensions will vary from researcher to researcher. Whether an organism will pass through a 1 mm mesh will also depend upon whether it is alive or dead at the time of sorting.

The term meiobenthos was first coined in 1942 by Mare, but organisms that would fit into the meiofauna category have been studied since the 18th century. A comprehensive text on meiofauna is Introduction to the study of meiofauna by Higgins and Thiel (1988).