Marsh Leigh, Huvenne Veerle A I, Jones Daniel O B
National Oceanography Centre, European Way, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK.
Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton, Waterfront Campus, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK.
R Soc Open Sci. 2018 Aug 22;5(8):180286. doi: 10.1098/rsos.180286. eCollection 2018 Aug.
Exploration licences for seafloor mineral deposits have been granted across large areas of the world's oceans, with the abyssal Pacific Ocean being the primary target for polymetallic nodules-a potentially valuable source of minerals. These nodule-bearing areas support a large diversity of deep-sea life and although studies have begun to characterize the benthic fauna within the region, the ecological interactions between large bathypelagic vertebrates of the open ocean and the abyssal seafloor remain largely unknown. Here we report seafloor geomorphological alterations observed by an autonomous underwater vehicle that suggest large vertebrates could have interacted with the seafloor to a maximum depth of 4258 m in the recent geological past. Patterns of disturbance on the seafloor are broadly comparable to those recorded in other regions of the world's oceans attributed to beaked whales. These observations have important implications for baseline ecological assessments and the environmental management of potential future mining activities within this region of the Pacific.
海底矿产的勘探许可证已在世界大洋的大片区域发放，其中太平洋深海是多金属结核的主要目标——多金属结核是一种潜在的宝贵矿产资源。这些含有结核的区域拥有丰富多样的深海生物，尽管已有研究开始描述该区域内的底栖动物群，但公海大型深海脊椎动物与深海海底之间的生态相互作用仍 largely unknown。在这里，我们报告了自主水下航行器观测到的海底地貌变化，这些变化表明，在最近的地质时期，大型脊椎动物可能与海底发生了相互作用，最深可达4258米。海底的扰动模式与世界其他海洋区域记录的因喙鲸造成的扰动模式大致相似。这些观测结果对该太平洋区域的基线生态评估和未来潜在采矿活动的环境管理具有重要意义。
