The deep ocean’s link to culture and global processes
The ocean covers a vast region of the planet and is often thought of as remote and poorly known. However, more than a century of research has made it clear that the ocean provides many beneficial and critical services to society, including a diversity of society–ocean interactions beyond what humans extract (or may extract) from it. The deep sea is no different; it provides a wealth of societal benefits that span the spectrum from inspiring art and captivating the mind to mitigating the rate of climate change through its connectedness with the Earth’s ecosystems. These processes and societal impacts fall within the broad category of ‘nonuse’ ecosystem services, or societal benefits that occur in addition to, or instead of, the services realised through resource extraction. Much like the surface ocean, while there is much more to discover, there is a significant body of information about the deep sea that has resolutely identified this environment as an important resource for nonuse benefits. In this chapter we give an overview of the nonuse services that are provided by the deep ocean, identify some of the advances to date on incorporating these values into the discussion of the natural capital of the deep, and highlight the challenges and opportunities that face incorporation of nonuse values into management-decision processes.