Department of Estuarine and Delta Systems, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, P.O. Box 140, 4400 AC, Yerseke, The Netherlands.
Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, Vening Meineszgebouw A, Princetonlaan 8a, 3584 CB, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Sci Rep. 2021 Jun 10;11(1):12238. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-91703-4.
Polymetallic nodule fields provide hard substrate for sessile organisms on the abyssal seafloor between 3000 and 6000 m water depth. Deep-seabed mining targets these mineral-rich nodules and will likely modify the consumer-resource (trophic) and substrate-providing (non-trophic) interactions within the abyssal food web. However, the importance of nodules and their associated sessile fauna in supporting food-web integrity remains unclear. Here, we use seafloor imagery and published literature to develop highly-resolved trophic and non-trophic interaction webs for the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone (CCZ, central Pacific Ocean) and the Peru Basin (PB, South-East Pacific Ocean) and to assess how nodule removal may modify these networks. The CCZ interaction web included 1028 compartments connected with 59,793 links and the PB interaction web consisted of 342 compartments and 8044 links. We show that knock-down effects of nodule removal resulted in a 17.9% (CCZ) to 20.8% (PB) loss of all taxa and 22.8% (PB) to 30.6% (CCZ) loss of network links. Subsequent analysis identified stalked glass sponges living attached to the nodules as key structural species that supported a high diversity of associated fauna. We conclude that polymetallic nodules are critical for food-web integrity and that their absence will likely result in reduced local benthic biodiversity.
多金属结核场为 3000 至 6000 米水深之间的深海海底的固着生物提供了硬底质。深海海底采矿以这些富含矿物质的结核为目标，可能会改变深海食物网中的消费者-资源（营养）和基质提供（非营养）相互作用。然而，结核及其相关固着动物群在支持食物网完整性方面的重要性仍不清楚。在这里，我们使用海底图像和已发表的文献，为克拉里昂-克利珀顿断裂带（CCZ，中太平洋）和秘鲁盆地（PB，东南太平洋）开发了高分辨率的营养和非营养相互作用网络，并评估了结核的去除可能如何改变这些网络。CCZ 相互作用网络包括 1028 个隔室，连接着 59793 个连接，而 PB 相互作用网络由 342 个隔室和 8044 个连接组成。我们表明，结核去除的击倒效应导致所有分类群减少 17.9%（CCZ）至 20.8%（PB），网络连接减少 22.8%（PB）至 30.6%（CCZ）。随后的分析确定，附着在结核上的管状玻璃海绵是关键的结构物种，支持着与之相关的大量动物群。我们的结论是，多金属结核对食物网的完整性至关重要，它们的缺失可能会导致当地底栖生物多样性减少。
