1. Ecological stoichiometry is a conceptual framework that considers how the balance of energy and elements affects and is affected by organisms in the environment. This perspective has seen recent development primarily in marine and freshwater pelagic ecosystems but its widescale application to freshwater benthic ecosystems remains limited. 2. This paper briefly introduces the concept of ecolo...

Deep-sea benthic foraminifera live in the largest habitat on Earth, constitute an important part of its benthic biomass, and form diverse assemblages with common cosmopolitan species. Modern deep-sea benthic foraminiferal assemblages are strongly infl uenced by events affecting their main food source, phytoplankton (a relationship known as bentho-pelagic coupling). Surprisingly, benthic foramin...

Previous laboratory studies indicate that coal combustion wastes (a mixture composed of fly ash and other lower volume wastes such as bottom ash; hereafter collectively referred to as ash) adversely affect the health of benthic fish (Erimyzon sucetta; lake chubsucker), but fish in these studies were provided with ample uncontaminated food resources. Because aquatic disposal of ash can also adve...

Tropical coral reefs are among the most productive and diverse ecosystems, despite being surrounded by ocean waters where nutrients are in short supply. Benthic dinitrogen (N2) fixation is a significant internal source of "new" nitrogen (N) in reef ecosystems, but related information appears to be sparse. Here, we review the current state (and gaps) of knowledge on N2 fixation associated with c...

Long-term trends in the response of benthic macrofauna to hydrological conditions were examined in the Lavaca-Colorado Estuary, Texas. Four stations representing a range of salinities in the Lavaca-Colorado Estuary were sampled quarterly for benthic macrofauna and hydrography from April 1988 to October 2008. The relationship between climate variability and local salinity patterns and benthic po...

Herbicides pose a potential threat to aquatic ecosystems, especially to phototrophic organisms such as benthic diatoms. Benthic diatoms may be a valuable indicator of the toxic impacts of herbicides in aquatic systems. However, this requires information on the herbicide sensitivity of a wide range of freshwater benthic diatom taxa. Unfortunately this information is only available for a limited ...

AMBI and Bentix are widely used benthic indices for guiding remediation decisions under two major pieces of environmental legislation in Europe—the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). These indices usually incorporate all living marine benthic invertebrates in a sample. Some recent studies, however, have applied these benthic indices to only mollu...

Benthic assemblages of variable density cover three progressively deeper ridges that parallel the Broward County, Florida, coast. An acoustic bottom classification survey using QTCView5 with a 50 kHz transducer showed different acoustic classes on the shallow reef-ridge and the two deeper reef-lines, which both showed the same acoustic signature. Ground-truthing showed that the differences in a...

This study analyzes 39 Atlantic and seven Pacific benthic δC records to characterize obliquity and precession responses in Atlantic overturning since 3 Ma. Regional benthic δC stacks are also analyzed. A major transition in orbital responses is observed at 1.5–1.6 Ma coincident with the first glacial shoaling of Northern Component Water. Since ∼1.5 Ma, the phases of Atlantic benthic δC records ...