Bioelectrical oscillations and scaling behaviour of sea mud

Abstract

This study uses a systematic approach to examine the bioelectric dynamics of marine sediments. We used an eight-channel recording system to measure bioelectric potentials. It had Pt/Ir electrodes and high-precision data acquisition (1 Hz sampling, 24-bit resolution). The setup was temperature-controlled ($23\pm 1$ °C). It had optimized electrode placement to capture spatial variations. Our analysis revealed: (1) Channel-specific amplitude variations of $8.82\pm 8.24$ mV to $85.11\pm 21.22$ mV, indicating varied bioelectric activity; (2) A consistent periodic behaviour with mean intervals of $\sim 640$ seconds across channels; (3) Power-law frequency scaling with exponents $\alpha \in [-1.49,-0.84]$, suggesting critical dynamics; (4) Strong spatial correlations (${\rho }_{ij}=0.51-0.85$) indicating coordinated network behaviour. The scaling exponents from detrended fluctuation analysis (${\alpha }_{DFA}=1.17-1.54$) strongly support self-organized criticality. These findings suggest marine sediment is a natural info-processing network. It may have uses in unconventional computing and environmental sensing. The observed dynamics and coordination patterns show new, complex capacities. They could inspire bio-inspired computing architectures.