This is a high resolution temporal and spatial study whose objective is to understand how the properties of the abyssal boundary layer respond to and modify the incoming chemical signal from the surface layers and therefore affect the paleoceanographic record in the underlying sediment. BENGAL aims to quantify and characterize the incoming flux (with time–lapse sediment traps and midwater particle cameras), its resuspension (with transmissometers and current meters), and its ultimate deposition (with chemical analysis of core samples and time–lapse sea–bed photography).