Feeding, burrowing, locomotion and death of larger organisms can significantly modify the appearance, texture and habitat conditions of the sediment surface. Such modifications create visible biogenic structures and associated microhabitats, which may have negative and/or positive effects on small-sized benthic communities. A series of dives with the submersible ALVIN was undertaken at the long-term monitoring Station M (4000 m, NE Pacific) in August 2006 to investigate, among other things, the influence of different biogenic structures on meiofauna and nematode assemblages. Five different biogenic structures were sampled; the tracks of two different species of sea urchins (Cystocrepis and Echinocrepis), one bioturbation mound, one decomposing kelp aggregate and one sponge. These were compared to a number of control samples taken away from the influence of the biogenic structures. Meiofauna ranged between 241 and 1277 ind per 10 cm² and was dominated by nematodes, with their contribution ranging from 74% to 89%. The comparison of the meiofauna communities from the biogenic structures and the control samples indicated differences between microhabitats for meiofaunal composition and nematode functional groups, which were due to differences between the microhabitats at the mound. The bioturbation mound and the control area hosted the highest number of nematode genera, though statistical analysis did not indicate significant differences. Beta diversity analysis revealed higher variability of meiofauna between than within different biogenic structures, suggesting habitat heterogeneity that may contribute substantially to the overall deep-sea richness. It may be concluded that among the studied biogenic structures, the bioturbation mound appears to be critical in shaping deep-sea meiobenthic communities.

大型生物的取食，挖穴，运动和死亡可以大大改变沉积物表面的外观，质地和栖息地条件。这种修饰会产生可见的生物结构和相关的微生境，这可能对小型底栖生物群落产生负面和/或正面影响。2006年8月，在长期监测站M（4000 m，东北太平洋）上，用潜水式ALVIN进行了一系列潜水，以调查不同生物源结构对鱼类和线虫组合的影响。采样了五种不同的生物基因结构。两种海胆物种（Cystocrepis和Echinocrepis的轨迹），一只生物扰动土墩，一只可分解的海藻骨料和一只海绵。将它们与不受生物基因结构影响的许多对照样品进行比较。Meiofauna范围为每10 cm ² 241至1277 ind并以线虫为主导，其贡献率为74％至89％。从生物结构和对照样品比较了鱼类群落的组成，发现了微栖动物的动植物组成和线虫功能组之间的差异，这是由于丘上微栖动物之间的差异所致。尽管统计分析并未显示出明显的差异，但生物扰动丘陵和控制区的线虫属数量最多。Beta多样性分析显示，不同生物基因结构之间的动物群落之间的变异性更高，这表明栖息地异质性可能对整体深海丰富度有重大贡献。可以得出结论，在研究的生物基因结构中，