The benthic boundary layer bbl is one area of research in which physicists chemists biologists geologists and engineers have worked in close and fruitful cooperation for several decades the bbl comprises the near bottom layer of water the sediment water interface and the top layer of sediment that is directly influenced by the overlying water in 1974 a bbl conference in france resulted in a book titled. The benthic boundary layer bbl is the part of the water column that is situated near to the sediment surface where active oceanic biogeochemical cycling occurs archaea play an important role . Interdisciplinary research is certainly one of the current buzzwords that needs to be incorporated in virtually every grant proposal the idea that integration of different scientific fields is a p. The benthic boundary layer transport processes and biogeochemistry transport processes and biogeochemistry bernard p boudreau school of ocean and earth sciences southampton oceanography center bo barker jorgensen director max planck institute for marine microbiology oxford university press 2001 0199770913 9780199770915 440 pages the benthic boundary layer is the zone of water and