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# A lightly trawled seabed is exposing what European sediment classifications may have forgotten
- URL: https://intelligence.wildlandseco.com/2026-09-24-sediment-habitat-shifted-baseline/
- Published: 2026-09-24T11:45:07.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-24T11:45:07.000Z
- Description: Video surveys around the Isles of Scilly found heterogeneous sediment habitats with fragile structure-forming fauna that current EUNIS categories do not represent well.
- Author: Benjamin Worlund
- Tags: Seafloor, shifted baselines, Isles of Scilly, trawling, EUNIS, Oceans, fisheries, MPAs, Monitoring, #ecological-intelligence, #brief-2026-09-24, #global-radar, #peer-reviewed, #geo-europe

Evidence

Peer-reviewed

Geography

Isles of Scilly, United Kingdom

System

Shelf sediments / marine protected area

## WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS

After roughly a decade without bottom-towed fishing in the study area, 2023–2025 video surveys found heterogeneous sediments supporting juvenile elasmobranchs and distinct epifaunal assemblages including sponges and corals. The authors found current EUNIS sediment categories did not capture those assemblages or fine spatial substrate variation.

## WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ

If the reference condition was already simplified before classifications were built, management can formalize a shifted baseline. Habitat taxonomies should remain testable against recovering systems.

## CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY

This is one archipelago and an observational recovery context; it does not show that all EUNIS sediment classes are invalid or isolate every effect of fishing closure from environmental differences.

## SOURCE

Journal of Applied Ecology  
[View original evidence ↗](https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.70562?ref=intelligence.wildlandseco.com)

From the Morning Brief · 2026-09-24

[Read the full Morning Brief →](https://intelligence.wildlandseco.com/morning-brief-2026-09-24/)