ABSTRACT
Wherever the sea floor is sufficiently stable and oxygenated for endobenthic colonization, the uppermost few centimetres of sediment team with interstitial microorganisms (e.g. Swedmark 1964; Fenchel 1969; Reise and Ax 1979; Gooday et al. 1992; Meadows et al. 1994). In sands, these organisms are mostly smaller than the grains they live among, and include ostracodes, nematodes, copepods, turbellarians, archiannelids and juvenile macrobenthos such as polychaetes and molluscs (Fig. 2.1).
