Seabed Mining And Resilience to Experimental impact

海底采矿和实验影响的恢复能力

基本信息

批准号：
NE/T00326X/1
负责人：
Rachel Jeffreys
金额：
$ 20.78万
依托单位：
University of Liverpool
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2021
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2021 至无数据
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FT00326X%2F1
关键词：
Seabed Mining Resilience Experimental impact

项目摘要

Over a 6 million square km region of the central Pacific ocean, at abyssal depths of almost five thousand metres, lies a vast mineral resource in the form of small potato-sized deposits called polymetallic nodules. They are highly-enriched in metals of importance for industry, including the development of new sustainable technologies. Although the region lies in international waters, countries have now signed 16 exploration contracts with a UN-organised international regulator and the United Kingdom is sponsor to two of these, covering an area more than the size of England. It is a requirement of both the regulator and the sponsoring state to ensure that serious harm is avoided to the marine ecosystem in this region - a hitherto untouched deep-sea wilderness. Developing a sustainable approach to polymetallic nodule mining is a challenge as the nature and importance of the Pacific abyssal ecosystem is largely unknown, as are the capacity of the ecosystem to cope with and recover from mining impacts. Our project aims to provide the critical scientific understanding and evidence-base to reduce the risks of this industrial development, taking advantage of two new and unique opportunities to solve these problems in a single programme. Firstly, the UK contractor that holds the UK-sponsored exploration contract (UK Seabed Resources) is planning a mining test in 2023, which will allow us to test the immediate impacts of a seabed mining vehicle for the first time. Secondly, as a partner in the first full-scale mining test done in 1979, they have been able to release new data on the location and results of a 40-year old large-scale mining operation. Our project team have secured access to data and test plans, to allow detailed experimental evaluation of impact and recovery from realistic mining disturbance on a decadal scale of vital relevance to understanding the long-term sustainability of deep-sea mining.The project aims to better understand the ecosystem in the Pacific abyss and how the different components interact and interconnect. We will start by assessing the water and its dynamic flows over time and space. This complex physical environment will be monitored for a year to capture its variabilities, particularly "storm events" near the seabed. We will use this to make predictions about where the sediment plume generated by mining will be transported and settle back to the seafloor. We then assess the linkages between the water, sediment surface and sub sediments, evaluating the natural cycling of nutrients and metals that is important to maintain ecosystem health. The impacts of mining and recovery of these processes will be assessed. Mining will lead to changes in the structure of the seabed, its shape and the physical nature of the sediments, which will be mapped and linked to biological patterns. The biological processes that lead to these patterns will be assessed by detailing the life histories and reproduction of the organisms present and their connectivity between areas near and far, and then determining their role in maintaining structured communities of life, a high biodiversity and a functioning food web. We will then evaluate the functions in the ecosystem that these organisms provide, which help maintain a healthy ecosystem. The impact of mining and recovery of all these patterns and processes will be determined using our experimental areas to assess the biological and functional consequences of disturbance in the deep sea. These changes are likely complex, so a range of mathematical models will be used to better understand and predict the consequences of mining activities at larger time and space scales. Such predictive power, along with the evidence from the scientific assessment, will provide information that is critical for understanding and reducing the environmental risk of future mining activities.

在近五千米处的深渊深处，中部太平洋地区有600万平方公里的地区，是一种巨大的矿产资源，形式称为小马铃薯大小的沉积物，称为聚合金小结节。它们在对工业重要性的金属中高度富裕，包括开发新的可持续技术。尽管该地区位于国际水域，但国家现在已经与无组织的国际监管机构签订了16份勘探合同，英国是其中两个的赞助商，涵盖了一个比英格兰大小的地区。这是监管机构和赞助状态的要求，以确保避免对该地区的海洋生态系统进行严重伤害 - 迄今为止迄今未触及的深海荒野。开发一种可持续的方法来进行聚合金结结节开采是一个挑战，因为太平洋深渊生态系统的性质和重要性在很大程度上是未知的，生态系统能够应对和从采矿影响中恢复的能力也是不明的。我们的项目旨在提供批判性的科学理解和证据基础，以减少这种工业发展的风险，利用两个新的独特机会来解决单个计划中的这些问题。首先，持有英国赞助的勘探合同（英国海底资源）的英国承包商计划在2023年进行采矿测试，这将使我们能够首次测试海床采矿车的直接影响。其次，作为1979年首次全面采矿测试的合作伙伴，他们能够发布有关40年历史的大型采矿业务的位置和结果的新数据。我们的项目团队已确保访问数据和测试计划，以详细介绍对影响和恢复的详细实验评估，从现实的采矿障碍中恢复到十年的至关重要相关性，以了解深海挖掘的长期可持续性。该项目旨在更好地了解太平洋深渊的生态系统以及如何相互作用和互连。我们将首先评估水及其动态流的时间和空间。这个复杂的物理环境将被监测一年以捕获其变异性，尤其是海床附近的“风暴事件”。我们将使用它来预测采矿将在哪里运输的沉积物羽流，然后沉降到海底。然后，我们评估水，沉积物表面和亚沉积物之间的联系，评估养分和金属的自然循环，这对于维持生态系统健康很重要。采矿和恢复这些过程的影响将得到评估。采矿将导致海床结构，其形状和沉积物的物理性质变化，这将映射并与生物模式相关。导致这些模式的生物学过程将通过详细介绍存在的生物的生命史和繁殖及其附近和远处区域之间的连通性，然后确定它们在维持生命的结构化社区，高生物多样性和正常的食物网中的作用。然后，我们将评估这些生物体提供的生态系统中的功能，从而有助于维持健康的生态系统。所有这些模式和过程的采矿和恢复的影响将使用我们的实验区域确定，以评估深海干扰的生物学和功能后果。这些变化可能很复杂，因此将使用一系列数学模型来更好地理解和预测较大时间和空间尺度的采矿活动的后果。这种预测能力以及科学评估的证据将提供有关理解和降低未来采矿活动的环境风险至关重要的信息。