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This study has determined the ways in which the characteristics of the nematode assemblages in nearshore marine waters along the microtidal lower west coast of Australia are influenced by habitat type, time of year and shore-perpendicular zones. The habitat types (1, 2 and 6), which had previously been identified on the basis of a suite of enduring environmental characteristics, could be broadly described as highly sheltered from wave activity and containing dense seagrass (1), moderately sheltered from wave activity with sparse seagrass (2) and relatively exposed to wave activity with no seagrass (6). Sampling in five consecutive seasons yielded 15 751 nematodes representing 75 species, of which, at present, only three can be referred to described species. The number of species and densities in habitat type 1, and particularly those in its subtidal zone (C), were far greater than those in the other two habitat …