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Dr. Fehmi Boufahja (34 years old) is a Tunisian meiobenthologist. He began his research since 2001 and becomes now an expert in nematology. The aims of his works are essentially biometry, diversity, life cycle and reproduction of free-living nematodes. Dr. Boufahja is particularly known based on his new biomonitoring index proposed in 2006 (Boufahja et al., 2006) and experimentally validated in 2011 (Boufahja et al., 2011a), the Relative Volume of the Pharyngeal Lumen (RVPL).

Dr. Fehmi Boufahja

Free-living marine nematodes have been widely used as an efficient tool to determine the effects of anthropogenic and natural disturbances and have been shown to be sensitive to many classes of pollutants (heavy metals, pesticides, lubricants ...) because of their direct benthic life style, high abundances, high turnover and the lack of larval dispersion and short generation times (Beyrem at al., 2007 ;  Mahmoudi et al., 2005 ). They are ideal for experiments because of their small size coupled with high abundance and diversity (Boufahja et al., 2011a). Using these small and easily maintained organisms allowed us to reduce the size of the microcosm containers without discernible edge effects and without sacrificing the animal’s indicator potential (Mahmoudi et al., 2007).

Oncholaimus campylocercoides                Sabatieria punctata

REFERENCES:

Beyrem H., Mahmoudi E., Essid N., Hedfi A., Boufahja F. & Aïssa P. 2007. Individual and combined effects of cadmium and diesel on a nematode community in a laboratory microcosm experiment. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, 68 : 412 - 418.

Boufahja F., Beyrem H. & Aïssa P. 2006.  Relative Pharyngeal Volume (RPV): new index for stress monitoring using meiobenthic nematodes. Meiofauna Marina, 15: 43 - 50.

Boufahja F., Hedfi A., Amorri J., Aïssa P., Mahmoudi E. & Beyrem H., 2011a. Experimental validation of the ‘Relative Volume of the Pharyngeal Lumen (RVPL)’ of free-living nematodes as a biomonitoring index using sediment-associated metals and/or Diesel Fuel in microcosms. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 399: 142–150.

Mahmoudi E., Essid N., Beyrem H., Hedfi A., Boufahja F., Vitiello P. & Aïssa P. 2005. Effects of hydrocarbon contamination on a free living marine nematode community: results from microcosm experiments. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 50: 1197 - 1204.

Mahmoudi E., Essid E., Beyrem H., Hedfi A., Boufahja F., Vitiello P. & Aïssa P. 2007. Individual and combined effects of lead and zinc of a free living marine nematode community: results from microcosm experiments. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 343: 217 - 226.