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Assessing mining impacts in the deep sea

New studies that document the effect of polymetallic nodule mining vehicles on deep-sea biodiversity suggest that keeping up with technological innovations will be key to more realistic impact assessments of deep-sea mining.

Jeroen Ingels
Daniel Leduc
Ashley Rowden
News & Views05 Jan 2026
Nature Ecology & Evolution

P: 1-3
Flourishing chemosynthetic life at the greatest depths of hadal trenches

The discovery of chemosynthesis-based benthic communities at depths of 5,800 m to 9,533 m in the Kuril–Kamchatka and western Aleutian trenches challenges traditional perspectives on the energy sources sustaining hadal fauna.

Xiaotong Peng
Mengran Du
Andrey V. Adrianov
ResearchOpen Access30 Jul 2025
Nature

Volume: 645, P: 679-685
Volcaniclastic density currents explain widespread and diverse seafloor impacts of the 2022 Hunga Volcano eruption

During the 2022 Hunga Volcano eruption, 10 km³ of seafloor material was removed, fueling long-run out seafloor density currents. These powerful currents damaged seafloor cables over a length of >100 km, reshaped the seafloor, and caused mass-mortality of seafloor life.

Sarah Seabrook
Kevin Mackay
Michael J. M. Williams
ResearchOpen Access30 Nov 2023
Nature Communications

Volume: 14, P: 1-11
Species-specific genetic variation in response to deep-sea environmental variation amongst Vulnerable Marine Ecosystem indicator taxa

Cong Zeng
Ashley A. Rowden
Jonathan P. A. Gardner
ResearchOpen Access18 Feb 2020
Scientific Reports

Volume: 10, P: 1-15
The hadal zone is an important and heterogeneous sink of black carbon in the ocean

Black carbon accumulation rates in hadal trenches in the deepest regions of the oceans could be seven-fold higher than the global ocean average, according to geochemical and isotopic analyses of sediments from six trenches in the Pacific Ocean.

Xi Zhang
Yunping Xu
Ronnie N. Glud
ResearchOpen Access10 Feb 2022
Communications Earth & Environment

Volume: 3, P: 1-9
Hadal trenches are dynamic hotspots for early diagenesis in the deep sea

Hadal trenches—the deepest part of the oceans—are biogeochemically more dynamic and diverse environments than previously suggested, according to in-situ measurements of benthic oxygen uptake rate.

Ronnie N. Glud
Peter Berg
Frank Wenzhöfer
ResearchOpen Access29 Jan 2021
Communications Earth & Environment

Volume: 2, P: 1-8
The use of spatially explicit genetic variation data from four deep-sea sponges to inform the protection of Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems

Cong Zeng
Malcolm R. Clark
Jonathan P. A. Gardner
ResearchOpen Access02 Apr 2019
Scientific Reports

Volume: 9, P: 1-13

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Assessing mining impacts in the deep sea

Flourishing chemosynthetic life at the greatest depths of hadal trenches

Volcaniclastic density currents explain widespread and diverse seafloor impacts of the 2022 Hunga Volcano eruption

Species-specific genetic variation in response to deep-sea environmental variation amongst Vulnerable Marine Ecosystem indicator taxa

The hadal zone is an important and heterogeneous sink of black carbon in the ocean

Hadal trenches are dynamic hotspots for early diagenesis in the deep sea

The use of spatially explicit genetic variation data from four deep-sea sponges to inform the protection of Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems

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