Temporal dynamics and predicting of meiofauna community developments using artificial neural networks in Marian Cove

Abstract

Temporal dynamics of meiofauna community in Marian cove, King George Island were observed from January 22 to October 29 1996. Generally 14 taxa appeared study location and especially appearance rate of nematodes were occupied 90.12 %, harpacticoids were 6.55 % and Kinorhynchs 1.54 %. Monthly dynamics of density in meiofauna showed increased tendency from January to May 1996 while after August 1996 density developments various. Community dynamics in temporal domain, however, does not show a tendency and regular patterns due to complexity and non-linearity resided in spatial and temporal variations of communities consisting of multi-species. Also, many environmental factors were affected and connected direct or indirect organisms compositions: Many studies suggest the control factors such like strong wind and irregular discharges of river (Guidi-Guilvard and Buscail, 1995), the development time and reproductive strategy of the dominant species (Bouvy and Soyer, 1989), and the predation on the meiofauna (Sibert, 1979; Findlay, 1981; Coull, 1985; Smith and Coull, 1987). In addition to studies about meiofauna in polar region rarely reported (Pfannkuche and Thiel, 1987; Szymelfenig et al., 1995 for arctic, Herman and Dahms, 1992 for Antarctic) due to its difficulties of sampling, there is no information on the temporal variations of meiofauna communities in the subtidal zones of Antarctic coastal areas. There are some reports on the intertidal meiofauna in Kerguelen Island (Bouvy and Soyer, 1989) and on the deep sea meiofauna in the Weddell Sea (Herman and Dahms, 1992) near the present study site. In these terms, artificial neural networks have been effectively used to pattern and predicted complex data in various fields in engineering and biological works by employing their feasibility in adapted learning and flexibility in information extraction (e.g., Zurada, 1992; Haykin, 1994). This research described the general occurrences and temporal dynamics of the meiofauna in