A team of scientists from the USA and UK has used artificial intelligence (AI) to map the activities of seafloor invertebrate animals, such as worms, clams and shrimps, across all the oceans of the world.
The research, led by Texas A&M University (USA) with investigators from the University of Southampton (UK) and Yale University (USA), combined large datasets, with machine learning techniques, to reveal the critical factors that support and maintain the health of marine ecosystems.
By stirring up and churning the seafloor – a process known as ‘bioturbation’ – small creatures living in the sediments can have a big impact in regulating global carbon, nutrient and biogeochemical cycles.
Rather like worms turning and enriching the soil in our garden, invertebrates are doing the same on the seabed – improving conditions for ocean life.
This latest study hugely expands this knowledge by, for the first time, providing a way to predict and map the contributions seafloor creatures make at any point around the world.
A team of scientists from the USA and UK has used artificial intelligence (AI) to map the activities of seafloor invertebrate animals, such as worms, clams and shrimps, across all the oceans of the world.
The research, led by Texas A&M University (USA) with investigators from the University of Southampton (UK) and Yale University (USA), combined large datasets, with machine learning techniques, to reveal the critical factors that support and maintain the health of marine ecosystems.
Marine sediments are extremely diverse and cover the majority of the Earth’s surface. By stirring up and churning the seafloor – a process known as ‘bioturbation’ – small creatures living in the sediments can have a big impact in regulating global carbon, nutrient and biogeochemical cycles. Rather like worms turning and enriching the soil in our garden, invertebrates are doing the same on the seabed – improving conditions for ocean life.
Understanding how these processes operate in different regions of the world gives scientists important insights into what is driving the health of oceans and how they may respond to climate change.
This latest study hugely expands this knowledge by, for the first time, providing a way to predict and map the contributions seafloor creatures make at any point around the world.
Findings of the study are published in the journal Current Biology.
