Marine soft sediments play crucial roles in global biogeochemical cycles and biodiversity. Yet, with organisms often hidden in the sediment, they pose challenges for effective monitoring and management. This study introduces a novel approach utilizing sediment microtopography as a proxy for ecosystem functioning and biodiversity. Combining field sampling, benthic chamber incubations, and advanced Structure‐from‐Motion photogrammetry techniques, we investigated the relationships between microtopographic features and various ecological parameters across diverse subtidal habitats. Our findings reveal strong associations between sediment microtopography and environmental variables, benthic fluxes, biodiversity metrics, and community functional traits, with microtopography consistently explaining more than 50% of the variance in the data. This research demonstrates the potential of sediment microtopography as a cost‐effective and scalable tool for assessing soft‐sediment ecosystem dynamics and informing conservation strategies. By providing insights into the links between habitat structure and ecological processes, this study advances our understanding of marine benthic ecology and opens new possibilities for habitat assessment applications worldwide.

中文翻译：

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海底沉积物微地形学作为生物多样性和生态系统功能的替代指标


海洋软沉积物在全球生物地球化学循环和生物多样性中发挥着至关重要的作用。然而，由于生物体通常隐藏在沉积物中，因此它们对有效监测和管理构成了挑战。本研究介绍了一种利用沉积物微地形作为生态系统功能和生物多样性代理的新方法。结合野外采样、底栖室孵化和先进的运动结构摄影测量技术，我们研究了不同潮下带栖息地的微地形特征与各种生态参数之间的关系。我们的研究结果揭示了沉积物微地形与环境变量、底栖通量、生物多样性指标和群落功能特征之间的密切关联，微地形学一致解释了超过 50% 的数据方差。这项研究证明了沉积物微地形学作为一种经济高效且可扩展的工具的潜力，用于评估软沉积物生态系统动态并为保护策略提供信息。通过深入了解栖息地结构和生态过程之间的联系，这项研究促进了我们对海洋底栖生态学的理解，并为全球栖息地评估应用开辟了新的可能性。