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How Your Smartphone May Be Destroying The Deep Ocean - And Its Valuable Microbes

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Parts of your cell phone, tablet, or electric vehicle may have originated from deep on the ocean floor.

Despite a lack of light and temperatures that hover around freezing (32°F/ 0°C), deep hydrothermal vents stimulate a vibrant array of marine life. These unusual places are teeming with critters like crabs, seastars, octopuses, sponges, and even deep-sea fish.

Underwater seamounts formed by hydrothermal vents are rich in valuable metals, including cobalt (used in batteries, including Tesla’s Model S car battery), platinum (used in jewelry and catalytic converters), and molybdenum (used in refining petroleum, and for strengthening steel). However, there is a lot of evidence that deep-sea mining is extremely destructive.

A deep-sea area rich in valuable manganese nodules off the coast of northern Peru was experimentally mined in 1989 to determine the destruction caused by mining.

Since then, the experimental mining site has been revisited four times, with the most recent assessment occurring in 2015 - over 25 years after the initial mining operation. Based on the most recent visit, the site has not yet recovered.

Other research has revealed that mining poses a threat to a number of deep-sea animals, including the ‘Scaly-Foot’ Snail and glass sponges. Now, a new study has unveiled yet another concern: deep-sea microbes.

The extreme environments created by deep-sea hydrothermal vents make them pressure-cookers of diversity. In the fight to survive (evolutionarily speaking), genetic diversity is enhanced. As a result, the non-living ‘rare minerals’ may not be the deep-sea’s most exciting component. The microbes might be.

“These microbes have incredible potential to inspire new solutions to all sorts of medical and technical challenges we face today,” says Julie Huber, a WHOI scientist and co-author of the new study. “But if we damage or destroy a habitat like a hydrothermal vent, we lose the diverse pool of microbial genetic information from which we can find new enzymes or drugs.”

As our understanding of hydrothermal vents has increased, so has the global thirst to mine them.

“The push for deep-sea mining has really accelerated in the last few years, and it is crucial that policymakers and the industry understand these microbes and the services they provide,” says Beth Orcutt, a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and the lead author of the study. “This paper establishes what we know and suggests next steps for using the best science to evaluate the impacts of this new human activity in the deep sea.”

A number of regulations have been passed by the International Seabed Authority, including regulations on the exploration of deep-sea cobalt, polymetallic nodules. The Authority’s scheduled to finalize the ‘Mining Code’ in 2020, which is intended to provide a more complete regulation of global mining activity. Until then, deep-sea mining and exploration may continue in a frenzy akin to the California Gold Rush.

The regulation of mining will not single-handedly protect deep-sea marine life. In fact, there are mounting concerns that regulations will encourage more mining activities before environmental effects are adequately evaluated.

“The question is, would the regulations adequately protect the marine environment and our answer is no," said Germany's delegate at the 2018 International Seabed Authority Council Meeting, a sentiment echoed by delegations from the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries. “The field of environmental regulation needs significant further development.”

Others disagree, arguing that the proper steps have been taken to minimize the adverse effect of deep-sea mining activity.

“This is the most preparation that we’ve ever done for any industrial activity,” says Michael Lodge, the Authority’s secretary-general, who describes the mining code as providing general guidance, with opportunities to develop more progressive standards over time.

Matthias Haeckel, a biogeochemist at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, agrees: “This is much better than we have acted in the past on oil and gas production, deforestation or disposal of nuclear waste.”

Regardless of what the Authority decides, the stakes are high, explains James Bradley, a co-author of the deep-sea microbe study: “This is an important conversation between policymakers, industry, and the scientific community, and it's important that we work together to get this right. Once these ecosystems are damaged, they may never fully recover.”

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