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.
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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70
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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10
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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In marine environments, sponges tend to eat other organisms to get their nutrients. But a study published in Functional Ecology by researchers at the University of Amsterdam's Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 1, 2026
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The closest thing marine taxonomists have to the Olympics is now underway in San Diego. But instead of racing for medals, leading scientists are spending two weeks working together to catalog the extraordinary diversity of ...
Ecology
Jun 26, 2026
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Marine sponges may play an important, previously underestimated role in reducing methylmercury contamination in marine food webs. In a new modeling study, researchers at Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon showed that sponges can significantly ...
Ecology
Jun 25, 2026
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At the icy, wind-swept tip of South America lies Inútil Bay, a remote marine environment in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago that has long guarded its underwater secrets because of severe logistical and meteorological challenges. ...
Ecology
Jun 22, 2026
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Destructive fishing practices and inadequate management allowed industrial fisheries operating in the waters of Saint Pierre and Miquelon to dump about 80,000 metric tons of fish back into the ocean from 1950 to 2022, with ...
Ecology
Jun 22, 2026
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Arctic fjords are among the most efficient natural systems for absorbing and storing carbon long term. However, as the Arctic is warming about four times faster than the global average, fjord ecosystems are changing rapidly. ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 17, 2026
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