Long-term impact and biological recovery in a deep-sea mining track.

Deep-sea polymetallic nodule mining is in the exploration phase at present with some groups proposing a move towards extraction within years. Management of this industry requires evidence of the long-term effects on deep-sea ecosystems, but the ability of seafloor ecosystems to recover from impacts over decadal scales is poorly understood. Here we show that, four decades after a test mining experiment that removed nodules, the biological impacts in many groups of organisms are persistent, although populations of several organisms, including sediment macrofauna, mobile deposit feeders and even large-sized sessile fauna, have begun to re-establish despite persistent physical changes at the seafloor.

Checklist of newly-vouchered annelid taxa from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, central Pacific Ocean, based on morphology and genetic delimitation.

Background: We present a checklist of annelids from recent United Kingdom Seabed Resources (UKSR) expeditions (Abyssal Baseline - ABYSSLINE project) to the eastern abyssal Pacific Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) polymetallic nodule fields, based on DNA species delimitation, including imagery of voucher specimens, Darwin Core (DwC) data and links to vouchered specimen material and new GenBank sequence records. This paper includes genetic and imagery data for 129 species of annelids from 339 records and is restricted to material that is, in general, in too poor a condition to describe formally at this time, but likely contains many species new to science. We make these data available both to aid future taxonomic studies in the CCZ that will be able to link back to these genetic data and specimens and to better underpin ongoing ecological studies of potential deep-sea mining impacts using the principles of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusuable) data and specimens that will be available for all.

Taxonomy, phylogeny, and biodiversity of Lumbrineridae (Annelida, Polychaeta) from the Central Pacific Clarion-Clipperton Zone.

The DNA taxonomy of six species of the annelid family Lumbrineridae collected from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the Central Pacific, an area of potential mining interest for polymetallic nodules, is presented. Lumbrinerids are an ecologically important and understudied annelid family within the deep sea, with many species still undescribed. This study aims to document the taxonomy and biodiversity of the CCZ using specimens collected from the UK-1, OMS, and NORI-D exploration contract areas and Areas of Particular Environmental Interest.

sp. nov. (Crustacea: Amphipoda) exhibits ontogenetic vertical stratification across abyssal and hadal depths in the Atacama Trench, eastern South Pacific Ocean.

S.I. Smith in Scudder, 1882 (Crustacea: Amphipoda) are prevalent scavengers of the benthopelagic community from bathyal to hadal depths.