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.
Bigelow Laboratory scientists have advanced an exciting method for linking the activity of individual microbes to their unique genetic code, providing the first application of the approach to sediments. Their findings were ...
Environment
Mar 14, 2025
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Most life on Earth relies on the sun's energy for survival, but what about organisms in the deep sea that live beyond the reach of its rays? A new study led by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), published in The ...
Astrobiology
Jan 17, 2025
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