The primary objective is to obtain key data about the potential toxicity of plumes generated by seabed mining on seafloor organisms to further enable the ecological risk assessment of possible ridge mining activities and the environmental impact assessment prior to such activities
Mining seafloor massive sulfides will create plumes of fine sediments and massive sulfide tailings (e.g., fine grained cuttings produced by drilling/excavation), which will eventually affect seafloor life near extraction fields and in surrounding areas. The toxicity of the drilled sulfides has not been examined for the sediment’s ecological functioning and key benthic species. However, this information is crucial to assess the risk of seafloor massive sulfides mining and its ecological impact on the seafloor communities and function.
Therefore, WP5 aims to answer the following research questions:
- What are the physicochemical properties of seafloor massive sulphide (SMS) mining plumes?
- To what extent are mining plumes harmful to benthic community diversity and function (from microbes to benthic megafauna)?
Approaches:
- Laboratory toxicity experiments
- Toxicity experiments in the field