Benthic ecosystems are ecological systems associated with the bottom substrates of aquatic environments, including marine, estuarine, and freshwater habitats, where organisms inhabit or interact with sediments, hardgrounds, or biogenic structures. They encompass diverse communities such as infauna, epifauna, demersal fishes, microphytobenthos, and benthic microbial assemblages that mediate key biogeochemical processes, including organic matter remineralization, nutrient regeneration, and sediment–water fluxes. Benthic ecosystems are structured by gradients in depth, hydrodynamics, sedimentology, oxygen availability, and resource inputs, and they play critical roles in carbon cycling, secondary production, habitat provision, and the coupling of pelagic and sedimentary processes within broader aquatic food webs and ecosystem functioning.
Plastic pollution has become a global environmental crisis, with an estimated 11 million tons of plastic entering the oceans each year. As larger plastic debris breaks down into microplastics, these tiny particles are transported ...
Environment
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Wetlands are a significant producer of methane, a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide. Yet not all of it escapes into the atmosphere. One reason is crabs. A study published in the journal Environmental Science ...
Hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor host a broad range of rare and unusual ecosystems. They can be spread far apart, yet there is often overlap among the creatures that inhabit them. Researchers, including those from the ...
Ecology
13 hours ago
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On Caribbean coral reefs, an unlikely partnership has gone largely unnoticed: Tiny fish regularly nestle within the feathery structures of tube worms. While these sensitive worms typically snap shut at the slightest disturbance, ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 13, 2026
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The world's largest whale graveyard has been discovered at the bottom of the Indian Ocean by Chinese scientists, who found that the vast expanse of both new and ancient carcasses supports huge communities of deep-sea life.
Plants & Animals
Jul 11, 2026
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Ahead of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in the U.S., an ozone nanobubble system has been used to keep the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool clear. Months before the celebrations, a massive cleanup ...
Bio & Medicine
Jul 6, 2026
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Bottlenose dolphins in the Adriatic Sea are spending much of their time following trawlers to scavenge for food, scientists say. The Adriatic seabed has been plowed by bottom trawlers for decades, resulting in ecosystem damage. ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 3, 2026
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Octopuses, squid and cuttlefish may have evolved large brains because of the challenges posed by their environments rather than the demands of social life, according to a new study published in iScience today.
Evolution
Jul 2, 2026
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Marine scientists at the University of Chester have discovered that environmental conditions experienced by jellyfish before winter can have lasting effects on the size and intensity of jellyfish blooms many months later. ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 2, 2026
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Between 1950 and 1990, more than 200,000 barrels filled with radioactive waste were dumped in the depths of the North-East Atlantic. Following an initial mission carried out between June 15 and July 11, 2025, to map the area ...
Environment
Jul 2, 2026
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