Scientists surveying the area found three times more seabed organisms and twice as many species compared to nearby unprotected waters.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat looks like a boring desert of mud, it\u2019s actually really, really dynamic,\u201d lead author Ben Harris, a marine ecologist at the University of Exeter in the U.K., told Mongabay by phone. \u201cWe saw not necessarily the most glamorous things \u2026 but once you get a bit nerdy about it and look a bit deeper, you realize that they\u2019re playing a really important role.\u201d<\/p>\n
Researchers found more than 150 species in a small sample of the seafloor, including spoon worms (subclass Echiura), bobbit worms (Eunice aphroditois) and shell-building organisms like tower snails (genus Turritella), which Harris called \u201cimportant gardeners of the seabed \u2026 all performing different roles.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s like eight Mount Everest\u2019s worth of sediments being turned over every minute of every day on the global continental shelf by these small animals,\u201d he added. This movement is important for carbon storage, and in the South Arran MPA, these animals are starting to rebuild a long-lost ecosystem that once thrived at the bottom of the sea. <\/p>\n
Europe\u2019s seabeds are the most trawled in the world. Heavy fishing gear has been dragged along the seafloor there since at least the mid-14th century<\/a>, destroying those ecosystems. Approximately\u00a0\u201d86%<\/a>\u00a0of the assessed seabed in the Greater North Sea and Celtic Sea\u201d showed \u201cevidence of physical disturbance by bottom-touching fishing gear,\u201d the European Environment Agency previously reported.<\/p>\n In fact, Europe\u2019s seabeds are so extensively destroyed that to find a reference for a healthy seabed ecosystem, researchers turned to historical records. There are no surviving seabeds that meet the old descriptions. <\/p>\n \u201cSo much of the continental shelf that is soft sediment has been trawled for so long, that we haven\u2019t really recorded what was there very well before we destroyed it,\u201d Harris said. The records that describe what a healthy European continental shelf looked like are from 150 to 200 years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of these records are incredible, and they describe these animal forests just off the coast of the U.K. that are covered in very biodiverse animal communities,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s all these descriptions of biogenic crust.\u201d<\/p>\n That \u201ccrust\u201d could have been a layer of marine animals, species like<\/a> oysters<\/a> (Ostrea edulis)<\/a> or honeycomb worms<\/a> (Sabellaria alveolata) blanketing the soft, muddy seafloor, and forming a rich substrate sustaining other forms of life, like corals and sponges.<\/p>\n In total, the research team recorded more than 1,500 organisms in approximately 100 liters (26 gallons) of sediment. \u201cExtrapolate that over the entire region of the MPA, and you\u2019re looking at billions of organisms,\u201d Harris added.<\/p>\n Image courtesy of Henley Spiers.<\/p>\n Image courtesy of Matt Jarvis & Adam Porter.<\/p>\n Image courtesy of Matt Jarvis & Adam Porter.<\/p>\n Image courtesy of Henley Spiers.<\/p>\n Image courtesy of Henley Spiers. <\/p>\n Image courtesy of Matt Jarvis & Adam Porter.<\/p>\n Banner image: Seabed in the South Arran Marine Protected Area. Image courtesy of Henley Spiers. <\/p>\n ![\"Arran](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Arran-Expedition-Underwater-Image-2-Credit-Henley-Spiers.jpg\")
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