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Governing Deep-Sea Ecosystems and Biological Resources “Which input and knowledge is the scientific community currently generating for the governance of deep-sea ecosystems?” Ann Vanreusel Ghent University and JPI Oceans Mining Impact Pilot Action European Maritime Day 2016, 18-19 May, Turku (Finland) Knowledge-Based Governance of Deep-Sea Resources A Science-Policy Workshop Potential impacts from mining • • • • Material and habitat removal Plumes (sediments, tailings) Light Noise • • • • Loss of habitat Loss of species Loss of genetic diversity Loss of ecosystem functions (Carbon flow, mineralisation) Secretariat of the Pacific Community (2013) Deep Sea Minerals: Sea Floor Massive Sulphides, a physical, biological, environmental, and technical review. Vol. 1A, SPC Conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity Lotze et al. 2011 1. What is the initial state? 2. What will be or should be the final state? 3. How long does receovery take? How to minimize disturbance ? How to facilitate recovery ? Research questions !! License areas targeted for polymetallic nodule mining (environmental base line studies) Areas of Particular Environmental Interest (APEIs) 200 km x 200km (+ 100km buffer) APEI Environmental Management Plan for the Clarion Clipperton Zone (ISBA /17/LTC/7 - July 2011) 9 areas of particular environmental interest (APEI), on a provisional basis, to protect the biodiversity and ecosystem structure and functioning of the zone APEI = “large areas with self-sustaining populations and a broad range of habitat variability. Those should not be affected directly by physical activity or indirectly by mining effects such as plumes, although the degree of impacts raised by potential deep sea mining is still unknown.” “Contractors will provide in their environmental management plans the designation of the required impact and preservation reference zones for the primary purposes of ensuring preservation and facilitating monitoring of biological communities impacted by mining activities. Impact reference zones should be designated to be within the seabed claim area actually mined. Preservation reference zones (PRZ) should be designated to include some occurrence of polymetallic nodules in order to be as ecologically similar as possible to the impact zone, and to be removed from potential mining impacts;” Research projects that complement the environmental work of the contractors What knowledge is required for a sound environmental management plan? Are APEIs effective and representative? Criteria for PRZ? JPI Oceans Expedition SO239 March –April 2015 „SO239 EcoResponse - Assessing the Ecology, Connectivity and Resilience of Polymetallic Nodule Field Systems“ 40 scientists on board for 52 days to sample 4 license areas and APEI3 Nodules are targeted Habitat/Substrate for (epi)fauna ? Videotransects with ROV at 1 m above seafloor across CCZ allowed to identify smaller epifauna dense nodule concentrations (> 15% cover) very few or no obvious surface nodules (< 1 %) 37 year old track Objectives 1. To identify the importance of nodules for local biodiversity 2. To gather preliminary data on one of the APEIs for which virtually nothing is known. 3. To validate the impact of nodule removal 4. To estimate the recovery at decadal time-scales Pictures by Geomar Nodule rich areas vs nodule poor areas Ars Low densities in APEI Low densities in nodule poor areas Vanreusel, Hilario, Ribeiro, Menot and Arbizu martinez (in press in Scienttific reports) APEI 3 is below the most oligotrophic surface waters of this oceanic region, at the northern edge of the Northern equatorial surface current, which resulted in low numbers compared to the more southern areas in the CCZ, where spring blooms occur more prominently and higher POC fluxes are expected especially in the eastern part of the surveyed area. POC flux Study sites for benthic surveys Background colors refer to POC flux (Lutz et al 2007) Reduced densities in experimental tracks Ars Vanreusel, Hilario, Ribeiro, Menot and Arbizu martinez (in press in Scinetific reports) Conclusions • Polymetallic nodules sustain diverse benthic communities on the abyssal plain • Removal of nodules but also the disturbance of the sediments creates at least a decadal impact to the epibenthic biodiversity • Indications of low epifaunal abundances in APEI 3 despite presence of high nodule concentrations Recommendations • High densities of surface nodules in the preservation reference zones (PRZs) is an ultimate requirement for the preservation of abyssal biodiversity within the CCZ. The presence of nodules may still enable the recovery of the local fauna in the long term, when the epifauna of the preservation areas is also impacted by dispersing sediment plumes. • Further research is required in each of the APEIs to understand how representative they are of, and connected with, the central CCZ abyssal ecosystems Impact of loss of connectivity on marine populations Which species and how many ? What is their distribution ? Biogeographical provinces ? What are population dynamics (reproduction, gene flow)? Courtesy Craig Smith U Hawaii GERMAN Only 3 genetic papers from CCZ published today 1300 km FRENCH 1900 specimens 700 sequences 243 Polychaete species 60% singletons 23% in both sites 95 Isopod species 70% singletons 7% in both sites Conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity Map biodiversity • Which species are there? • What is their distribution? Catalogue species identifications • Taxonomy incl. Barcoding reference database • Access to data for comparison (share data) Understand pattersn and processes • Turnover (local versus regional diversity) • Connectivity (Reproductive biology/life cycle/gene flow) • Biological and envionmental drivers - Species interactions (key stone species, Invasive species,..) Habitat provision and other environmental drivers International collaboration between scientists and contractors Development and access to new technology boxcores cm² 4 10000 Per station Per campaign 40 100000 Over all contractors 4000 10000000 m² 1 10 1000 km² 0,000001 0,00001 0,001 Technology development for ‘rapid and reliable’ monitoring before, during and after mining Courtesy Wood’s Hole oceanographic Institute Technology development for ‘rapid and reliable’ monitoring before, during and after mining 18S PCR Metagenetic approach DNA extraction COI PCR Compare OCTU’s to reference database 1 MILLION sequence reads, OCTU formation Next generation sequencing JPI-Oceans: The Joint Programming Initiative Healthy and Productive Seas and Oceans Pilot Action: “Ecological Aspects of Deep-Sea Mining” jpio-miningimpact.geomar.de 25 Partners Thank you for your attention MIDAS „Managing Impacts of Deep-seA reSource exploitation” www.eumidas.net 32 Partners