# Trait modeling to predict benthic functions and vulnerabilities across black sea seascapes

## TL;DR

This study maps benthic functions and vulnerabilities in the Black Sea to help protect marine ecosystems under human and climate pressures.

## Contribution

A novel multidisciplinary approach is used to model benthic functions and vulnerabilities at a regional scale.

## Key findings

- Oxygen availability strongly influences macrobenthic community traits and ecosystem functions.
- Shallower, oxygen-rich areas support diverse benthic functions, while low-oxygen areas show functional impoverishment.
- Mapping benthic vulnerabilities can aid marine management aligned with UN Sustainable Development Goal 14.

## Abstract

Benthic biodiversity is of global significance for the provision of ecosystem services and the mediation of global biogeochemical cycles. The lack of detailed spatial distributions of the functions and vulnerabilities of the benthos critically prevents us from protecting benthic biodiversity and its functioning in the context of increasing human perturbations and climate change. Here, we propose a multidisciplinary approach to bridging in situ benthic data to the maps of macrobenthic functions and vulnerabilities at the scale of the northwestern shelf of the Black Sea. Our findings show that oxygen availability is a key driver of the functional trait composition of macrozoobenthic communities. Shallower well-oxygenated areas support high biomixing and bioirrigation on muddier-sandier substrata and high biodeposition on coarser substrata associated with mussel reef communities. In contrast, at depleted oxygen areas at the edge of the shelf, macrobenthic communities are functionally impoverished with only a combination of a few typical opportunistic traits, and those communities have a negligible impact on ecosystem functions. Mapping of vulnerabilities and functions of benthic communities can support marine management strategies aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14: Life Below Water.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-025-24508-4.