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.
Commercial shipping not only affects the Baltic Sea on the surface, but also has a significant impact on the water column and the seabed. A study by the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW) and Kiel ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 10, 2026
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The Senckenberg Ocean Species Alliance (SOSA), in partnership with the scientific publisher Pensoft Publishers and science YouTuber Ze Frank, have let the internet name a newly discovered deep‑sea chiton (a type of marine ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 6, 2026
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68
Seamounts and the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) are two typical deep-sea habitats that often coexist. However, determining whether the "seamount effect" alters OMZ structure through marine stratification, thereby influencing ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 5, 2026
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16
A dome-fronted submersible sinks beneath the waves off Indonesia, heading down nearly 1,000 meters in search of new species, plastic-eating microbes and compounds that could one day make medicines.
Earth Sciences
Jan 26, 2026
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59
An animal ecologist researching large marine animals such as whales and dolphins, Assistant Professor Iwata Takashi of the Graduate School of Maritime Sciences has performed surveys in oceans across the world. By using a ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 23, 2026
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41
An international team of scientists from South Africa, Canada, France and the UK has uncovered fossil evidence of a tiny ecosystem that helped kick-start the recovery of Earth's oceans after a global mass extinction.
Ecology
Jan 16, 2026
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197
When a ship sinks, it is often in tragic circumstances. Beneath the waves, however, a different story unfolds: shipwrecks become the foundations of new life.
Ecology
Dec 22, 2025
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22
Halalaimus is a microscopic nematode genus commonly found in sediment on the seafloor. It lives 1–5 cm below the sediment surface and grazes on bacteria or organic materials in the sediment.
Plants & Animals
Dec 18, 2025
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31
Cephalopods—the class of animals that comprises octopuses and squids—are ubiquitous throughout the ocean, including in the deep sea. However, researchers still don't know very much about the distribution, diversity and behaviors ...
A new report reveals the results of a study exploring biodiversity in a region targeted for seabed mining—capturing baseline data, tracking natural changes and assessing the impacts of a polymetallic nodule mining machine. ...
Environment
Dec 7, 2025
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