MONTREAL — Far below the seals and belugas that dive gracefully through Quebec’s Saguenay fiord, there are small creatures burrowing in the sea floor mud that scientists believe play a crucial role in mitigating the effects of climate change.

Earlier this month, scientists from the United Kingdom and Université Laval spent several days on the fiord’s bumpy waters, grabbing samples from 200 metres below in a quest to track the life in the mud.

Dr. Adam Porter, a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Exeter, said the sea can look like an “impenetrable blue” for those on the surface.

“I think mud is even more impenetrable because you get down to the bottom, you look at the sea floor, it can often look like there’s not much going on,” he said in a video interview. “But there’s

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