Giant, highly diverse protists in the abyssal Pacific: vulnerability to impacts from seabed mining and potential for recovery.

Autor: Gooday AJ; National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK.; Life Sciences Department, Natural History Museum, London, UK., Durden JM; National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK.; Department of Oceanography, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawai'i at Mañoa, Honolulu, HI, USA., Smith CR; Department of Oceanography, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawai'i at Mañoa, Honolulu, HI, USA.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Communicative & integrative biology [Commun Integr Biol] 2020 Nov 25; Vol. 13 (1), pp. 189-197. Date of Electronic Publication: 2020 Nov 25.
DOI: 10.1080/19420889.2020.1843818
Abstrakt: Xenophyophores, giant deep-sea agglutinated foraminifera, dominate the benthic megafauna in the eastern equatorial Pacific Clarion-Clipperton Zone. This abyssal (>4000 m depth) region hosts major deposits of polymetallic nodules targeted for future seabed mining, an activity that would destroy these highly diverse and delicate protists, particularly those living on the nodules themselves. Since the cell occupies only a small proportion of their test volume, xenophyophores may make a fairly modest contribution to benthic biomass and carbon cycling. Nevertheless, xenophyophore tests can passively enhance particle deposition, concentrate food, and provide habitat structure utilized by diverse organisms. Their destruction could therefore influence the recovery of benthic communities. Species requiring nodule substrates will likely not recover, since nodules take millions of years to form. However, xenophyophores can grow quickly and colonize extensive volcanic ash deposits within years, suggesting that sediment-dwelling species could be among the first large immobile organisms to reappear in mining-impacted areas.
Competing Interests: No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.
(© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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