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Born of mud

One teaspoon of mangrove mud contains ten million bacteria, all of them potential food. Mud whelks and fiddler crabs that eat the mud perform the unglamourous but crucial task of breaking down the gloop, and their waste is the vital product that spawns the entire food chain. Shrimp devour these products in the water and then in turn swim around as small easy-to-catch parcels of nutrients.

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2 minutes

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