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New study highlights extent of biodiversity in world’s largest mineral exploration region
An unprecedented global increase in demand for minerals is being seen as countries look to become carbon neutral. This green energy revolution is heavily reliant on raw materials, such as cobalt, and demand is now fueling exploration into deep sea mining. However, the biodiversity of areas, such as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the central and eastern Pacific, is poorly understood.
Commercial deep-sea mining is currently prohibited in areas beyond national jurisdiction, but companies are allowed to run exploratory operations in such areas to assess their mineral wealth and measure environmental baselines. The CCZ is an area of the deep sea spanning up to six million km2 roughly the width of the continental United States between Hawaii and Mexico and it alone currently has 17 contracts for mineral exploration covering 1.2 million km2. However, despite initial mineral exploration beginning in the 1960’s, baseline biodiversity knowledge of the region has been severely lacking until recently.
In a new paper researchers attempt to report on the life of the CCZ. A rapid growth in taxonomic surveys for the area which began in the early 1970’s has allowed them to conduct the first comprehensive synthesis of CCZ biodiversity and create an inventory vital to future assessments of environmental impacts from any mining activity.
Coauthor Adrian Glover, Merit Researcher Natural History Museum, comments, ‘Taxonomy is the most important knowledge gap we have when studying these unique habitats. We have to know what lives in these regions before we can begin to understand how to protect such ecosystems.
‘We are on the eve of some of the largest deep sea mining operations potentially being approved. It is imperative that we work with the companies looking to mine these resources to ensure any such activity is done in a way that limits its impact upon the natural world.’
To further understand the CCZ, scientists sail the Pacific Ocean on research cruises that employ sampling techniques ranging from the technical, like remote-controlled vehicles that traverse the ocean floor, to the simple, like a sturdy box dragged along the bottom.
Data from such cruises made up some of the 100,000 records that the team analysed to help them understand life in the CCZ. Notably an increase in biological recording was seen with most species described in recent years. The compiled checklist resulted in 27 phyla, 49 classes, 163 orders, 501 families and 1119 genera in total. On a species level the team recorded 185 and only 6 of them, including a sea cucumber, a nematode, and a carnivorous sponge, have been seen in other regions meaning they are likely unique to the CCZ.
The majority of species recorded were Arthropods such as shrimp or crabs with Annelids and Nematoda groups, which include various worms, also making up many of the species counted.
The recent increase in biological data available to the team is partly due to efforts by The International Seabed Authority (ISA). They have ensured that, as part of explorations for potential mining, companies must collect and share environmental data. This data is then shared publicly by ISA through their DeepData platform.
Author, Muriel Rabone, Data Manager & Analyst in the #NHMDeepSea research group at the Natural History Museum, explains, ‘DeepData is one of the tools that has significantly increased our knowledge of the CCZ, but we would still predict there are 6000-8000 more unknown animal species meaning around 90% of species in the CCZ are not known to science.
‘We should note that the percentage of undescribed species in this zone is similar to that recorded for the global ocean but the potential for mineral extraction in this area means we should strive for a better understanding of the life it holds.’
The study also revealed that some regions of the CCZ have barely been studied at all. The least sampled sites being rocky outcrops which have been shown to have unique and diverse communities and so would benefit from a more in-depth understanding.
The team behind the research hope that this CCZ checklist is a key step forward towards creating field guides for the area’s wildlife. The estimates they provide can create a starting point for future data collection as new methods become available allowing us to truly understand this environment and how we may impact it.
Given that mining operations in the area could be imminent with ISA considering applications this year, the use of biological data for environmental management has become more important than ever.
The paper How many metazoan species live in the world’s largest mineral exploration region? is published in Current Biology.
This research was supported by funding from The Pew Charitable Trusts.
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