Freshwater and limno-terrestrial meiofauna of the Massane Forest Reserve in the Eastern French Pyrenees

We report the results of a faunistic survey focused on freshwater and limno-terrestrial meiofauna toimprove biodiversity knowledge in a protected area in the Eastern part of the French Pyrénées: theMassane Forest Reserve (336 ha). The survey provided 1187 occurrence records from 315 taxa (mostresolved at species level), uploaded as a shared online dataset and made freely available in the GlobalBiodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). The highest number of occurrences and distinguishable speciesbelong to Nematoda (775 occurrences, 172 taxa), followed by Rotifera (219 occurrences, 67 taxa),Platyhelminthes (85 occurrences, 32 taxa), Tardigrada (69 occurrences, 25 taxa), and Gastrotricha (39occurrences, 19 taxa). A diversity of meiofaunal organisms was found, in large numbers, in all thescreened samples: from stream biofilms and sediments to forest floor soils, mosses, and litter, to a broadrange of tree-related micro-habitats associated with beech epixylic mosses and lichens, tree cavities,woodpecker breeding holes, bark pockets and fruiting bodies of saproxylic fungi. This survey makes theMassane forest one of the few protected areas of the world with an all-taxa biodiversity inventoryincluding meiofaunal groups, which could serve as a standard to further consider those cryptic groups oftiny animals in forest conservation efforts.