Seabed mining could come at a high price for a unique fauna.
Mol Ecol
; 29(23): 4506-4509, 2020 12.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33030747
The deep seafloor is teeming with life, most of which remains poorly known to science. It also constitutes an important reserve of natural resources, particularly minerals, that mining companies will start harvesting in the next few years (Nat Rev Earth Environ, 1, 2020, 158). In this context, broad biodiversity assessments of deep-sea ecosystems are urgently needed to establish a baseline prior to mining. However, significant gaps in our taxonomic knowledge and the high cost of sampling in the deep sea limit the effectiveness of conventional morphology-based surveys. In this issue of Molecular Ecology, Laroche et al. (Mol Ecol, 2020) capitalize on high throughput molecular methods to conduct one of the most detailed and rigorous surveys of the composition and biogeography of deep-seafloor metazoan communities to date. The authors show that deep seamounts in the Clarion Clipperton Zone are inhabited by rich metazoan communities that are distinct from those of the surrounding abyssal plains. These results have important conservation implications: if communities on deep seamounts were to persist after large-scale industrial mining operations on the surrounding plains, the seamounts would not serve as appropriate reservoirs to repopulate impacted areas.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Ecossistema
/
DNA Ambiental
Tipo de estudo:
Health_economic_evaluation
Limite:
Animals
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Mol Ecol
Assunto da revista:
BIOLOGIA MOLECULAR
/
SAUDE AMBIENTAL
Ano de publicação:
2020
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Panamá
País de publicação:
Reino Unido