ArticleScience advances2020
Effects of a deep-sea mining experiment on seafloor microbial communities and functions after 26 years.
Article in Science advances, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 143 citations in OpenAlex.
- Assessing mining impacts in the deep sea.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- No link between polymetallic nodules and anomalous oxygen concentration increases in benthic experiments from the Clarion Clipperton Zone.F1000Research · 2026Article
- Widespread deep-sea microorganisms in subseafloor geochemical cycling.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Article
- Safeguarding microbial biodiversity: microbial conservation specialist group within the species survival commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2025Article
- Phylogenetically and metabolically diverse active carbon-fixing microbes reside in mangrove sediments.Microbiome · 2025Article
- Safeguarding microbial biodiversity: microbial conservation specialist group within the species survival commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- Checklist of ichthyoplankton of NORI-D polymetallic nodule exploration claim (eastern Clarion-Clipperton Zone) during winter 2021.Biodiversity data journal · 2025Article
- Probabilistic ecological risk assessment for deep-sea mining: A Bayesian network for Chatham Rise, Pacific Ocean.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2025Article
- Safeguarding microbial biodiversity: microbial conservation specialist group within the species survival commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.Sustainable microbiology · 2025Article
- Science at the Secretariat of the International Seabed Authority: post-normal science for recalibration of policy instruments.Open research Europe · 2024Article
- Mosaic environment-driven evolution of the deep-sea mussel Gigantidas platifrons bacterial endosymbiont.Microbiome · 2023Article
- Depth-Dependent Distribution of Prokaryotes in Sediments of the Manganese Crust on Nazimov Guyots of the Magellan Seamounts.Microbial ecology · 2023Article
- Impact of the Mining Process on the Near-Seabed Environment of a Polymetallic Nodule Area: A Field Simulation Experiment in a Western Pacific Area.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Ethical opportunities in deep-sea collection of polymetallic nodules from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone.Integrated environmental assessment and management · 2022Article
- Restoration experiments in polymetallic nodule areas.Integrated environmental assessment and management · 2022Article
- Approaches to Unmask Functioning of the Uncultured Microbial Majority From Extreme Habitats on the Seafloor.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Review
- Climate change considerations are fundamental to management of deep-sea resource extraction.Global change biology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Future supplies of rare minerals for global industries with high-tech products may depend on deep-sea mining. However, environmental standards for seafloor integrity and recovery from environmental impacts are missing. We revisited the only midsize deep-sea disturbance and recolonization experiment carried out in 1989 in the Peru Basin nodule field to compare habitat integrity, remineralization rates, and carbon flow with undisturbed sites. Plough tracks were still visible, indicating sites where sediment was either removed or compacted. Locally, microbial activity was reduced up to fourfold in the affected areas. Microbial cell numbers were reduced by ~50% in fresh "tracks" and by <30% in the old tracks. Growth estimates suggest that microbially mediated biogeochemical functions need over 50 years to return to undisturbed levels. This study contributes to developing environmental standards for deep-sea mining while addressing limits to maintaining and recovering ecological integrity during large-scale nodule mining.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.