Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR/CIMAR), University of Porto (U.Porto), Matosinhos, Portugal; Faculty of Sciences (FCUP), Department of Biology, University of Porto (U.Porto), Porto, Portugal.
Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science, INESC-TEC, Porto, Portugal.
Sci Total Environ. 2018 Jun 15;627:1505-1514. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.01.221. Epub 2018 Feb 20.
The growing economic interest in the exploitation of mineral resources on deep-ocean beds, including those in the vicinity of sensitive-rich habitats such as hydrothermal vents, raise a mounting concern about the damage that such actions might originate to these poorly-know ecosystems, which represent millions of years of evolution and adaptations to extreme environmental conditions. It has been suggested that mining may cause a major impact on vent ecosystems and other deep-sea areas. Yet, the scale and the nature of such impacts are unknown at present. Hence, building upon currently available scientific information it is crucial to develop new cost-effective technologies embedded into rigorous operating frameworks. The forward-thinking provided here will assist in the development of new technologies and tools to address the major challenges associated with deep sea-mining; technologies for in situ and ex situ observation and data acquisition, biogeochemical processes, hazard assessment of deep-sea mining to marine organisms and development of modeling tools in support of risk assessment scenarios. These technological developments are vital to validate a responsible and sustainable exploitation of the deep-sea mineral resources, based on the precautionary principle.
深海矿床（包括热液喷口等敏感富生境附近的矿床）的开采日益引起人们的经济兴趣，这引发了人们越来越多的担忧，即这些行动可能对这些鲜为人知的生态系统造成损害，这些生态系统代表了数百万年的进化和对极端环境条件的适应。有人认为，采矿可能对喷口生态系统和其他深海区域造成重大影响。然而，目前尚不清楚这些影响的规模和性质。因此，在目前可用的科学信息的基础上，开发嵌入严格操作框架的新的具有成本效益的技术至关重要。这里提供的前瞻性思维将有助于开发新技术和工具，以应对与深海采矿相关的主要挑战；用于原位和异位观察和数据采集的技术、生物地球化学过程、深海采矿对海洋生物的危害评估以及支持风险评估情景的建模工具的开发。这些技术发展对于基于预防原则，验证深海矿产资源的负责任和可持续开采至关重要。
