When the RV Knorr set sail for the Galapagos Rift in 1977, the scientists aboard expected to find deep-sea hydrothermal vents. What they did not expect to find was life—abundant and unlike anything ever seen before. Submersible dives revealed not only deep-sea hydrothermal vents but entire ecosystem surrounding them, including the towering bright red tubeworms that would become icons of the deep sea. This discovery was so unexpected that the ship carried no biological preservatives. These first specimens were fixed in vodka from the scientists’ private reserves.Since that first discovery, deep-sea hydrothermal vents have been found throughout the oceans. As more regions are explored, newly discovered vent fields present the potential for entirely species and ecosystems. Increasingly, however, it is not scientific discovery, but the financial value of vent fields, and the ores they contain, that is driving exploration in the deep sea. Over the last five decades, a new industry has emerged to explore the potential of mining Seafloor Massive Sulphides (deep-sea hydrothermal vents that contain high concentrations of rare and precious metals). Multiple enterprises are developing mining prospects that include both active and inactive deep-sea hydrothermal vent fields. In order to understand the impacts of exploitation at deep-sea hydrothermal vents, scientists and miners must establish environmental baselines. Biodiversity is frequently used as a proxy for resilience and as a metric for assessing biological baselines but, since research effort is not distributed equally across the oceans, biodiversity estimates in the deep sea are rarely comprehensive. Studies have predominantly focused on a few key biogeographic provinces, while other regions have only been sampled sparingly. Managers, regulators, and mining companies are working from incomplete data, with inferences about the consequences, as well as mitigation and remediation practices, often drawn from studies of few vent ecosystems that are often different from those in which the impacts are expected to occur. To better assess our current understanding of deep-sea hydrothermal vent biodiversity, we undertook a quantitative survey of the last 40 years of vent research. A stark north/south divide was detected, demonstrating that while research was disproportionately focused in the Northern Hemisphere, mining prospects were overwhelmingly positioned in the Southern Hemisphere. In addition, we provided a ranked assessment of biodiversity in eight major biogeographic provinces, identified knowledge gaps in the available deep-sea hydrothermal vent exploration literature, and assessed sampling completeness to provide further guidance to regulators, managers, and contractors as they develop comprehensive environmental baseline assessments.
Mining seafloor massive sulphides and biodiversity: what is at risk?