An organism that lives on, in, or near the bottom of a water body, such as the seabed or the bottom of a freshwater system. This includes habitats in the littoral, sublittoral, and abyssal zones, and may cover areas exposed during low tide. The term may be further subdivided into depth-related benthic zones (e.g., infralittoral, circalittoral, bathyal, abyssal), which can also be used as attributes to describe the organism’s specific vertical distribution.