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.
An international study led by researchers from the University of Tartu shows that approximately 470 million years ago, a significant ecological change took place in the world's oceans: For the first time, the interiors of ...
Ecology
Jul 22, 2026
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A coral reef, missing and presumed dead, has been found alive and well off the coast of Benin. Surveys in the 1960s, focused on identifying promising fishing areas, flagged a possible deep-water coral reef but assumed it ...
Ecology
Jul 20, 2026
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146
Research carried out three years after installation at the Hollandse Kust Zuid offshore wind farm in the North Sea has found that distinct marine communities have developed inside offshore wind turbine foundations equipped ...
Ecology
Jul 17, 2026
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A team of researchers from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens has discovered a completely new genus and species of subterranean freshwater snail in the Peloponnese region of southern Greece. The species, Cyllena ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 16, 2026
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16
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
Jul 15, 2026
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46
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
Jul 15, 2026
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56
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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94
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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116
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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