海洋における生態系エンジニアリングの歴史(As the world churns — a history of ecosystem engineering in the oceans)

2025-08-11 イェール大学

イェール大学の研究は、海底動物が堆積物をかき混ぜる「バイオタービーション」が、数億年にわたり海洋生態系の構造形成に重要だったことを解明した。掘削や攪乱による底質の改変は、居住適性や栄養循環、生物多様性に影響し、海底から上層に至る環境を変化させてきた。これを「生態系エンジニアリング」の歴史として地質学的時間軸で体系化したのは初めて。成果はScience Advancesに掲載され、長期的・大規模な生物活動が海洋環境を再構築してきた証拠を提示した。

<関連情報>

時間経過に伴う生物攪乱の追跡:海洋堆積物の混合層と移行層の進化 Tracking bioturbation through time: The evolution of the marine sedimentary mixed and transition layers

Lidya G. Tarhan, Kate H. Pippenger, Alison T. Cribb, Michelle Zill, […] , and Matthew E. Clapham
Science Advances  Published:30 Jul 2025
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adu7719

海洋における生態系エンジニアリングの歴史(As the world churns — a history of ecosystem engineering in the oceans)

Abstract

The physical, biogeochemical, and ecological properties of the modern seafloor are extensively shaped by the activities of burrowing and sediment-mixing animals, processes collectively known as bioturbation. Bioturbation is primarily recorded by homogenized sediments of the seafloor mixed layer and the underlying transition layer of discrete burrows. Although these two zones can be readily measured today, there has been limited understanding of how the mixed and transition layers evolved over the Phanerozoic since animals first began to extensively colonize the seafloor. Here, we provide a record for the depths of the sedimentary mixed and transition layers through the Phanerozoic. We find that although deepening of the sediment mixed layer spanned hundreds of millions of years, a deep transition layer was established as early as the Cambrian and did not further deepen until the Mesozoic—trajectories reflecting evolutionary radiations, changes in nutrient cycling, and alleviation of oxygen stress.

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