Loading...
Megafauna of the UKSRL exploration contract area and eastern Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the Pacific Ocean: Echinodermata
Ziegler, AF Kremenetskaia, A Mah, CL Mooi, R O Hara, T Pawson, DL Roux, M Smith, CR
Ziegler, AF
Kremenetskaia, A
Mah, CL
Mooi, R
O Hara, T
Pawson, DL
Roux, M
Smith, CR
Citations
Altmetric:
Advisors
Editors
Other Contributors
Affiliation
EPub Date
Issue Date
2017-05-11
Submitted Date
2020-09-11
Subject Terms
deep-sea mining
polymetallic nodule
Clarion-Clipperton Zone
megafauna
echinoderm
atlas
polymetallic nodule
Clarion-Clipperton Zone
megafauna
echinoderm
atlas
Collections
Files
Loading...
Published/publisher’s pdf
Adobe PDF, 6.99 MB
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Other Titles
Abstract
Background: There is growing interest in mining polymetallic nodules from the abyssal Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Despite being the focus of environmental studies for decades, the benthic megafauna of the CCZ remain poorly known. In order to predict and manage the environmental impacts of mining in the CCZ, baseline knowledge of the megafauna is essential. The ABYSSLINE Project has conducted benthic biological baseline surveys in the UK Seabed Resources Ltd polymetallic-nodule exploration contract area (UK-1). Prior to these research cruises in 2013 and 2015, no biological studies had been done in this area of the eastern CCZ. New information: Using a Remotely Operated Vehicle and Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, the megafauna within the UKSRL exploration contract area (UK-1) and at a site ~250 km east of the UK-1 area were surveyed, allowing us to make the first estimates of megafaunal morphospecies richness from the imagery collected. Here, we present an atlas of the abyssal echinoderm megafauna observed and collected during the ABYSSLINE cruises to the UK-1 polymetallic-nodule exploration contract area in the CCZ. There appear to be at least 62 distinct morphospecies (13 Asteroidea, 5 Crinoidea, 9 Echinoidea, 29 Holothuroidea and 6 Ophiuroidea) identified mostly by imagery but also using molecular barcoding for a limited number of animals that were collected. This atlas will aid the synthesis of megafaunal presence/absence data collected by contractors, scientists and other stakeholders undertaking work in the CCZ, ultimately helping to decipher the biogeography of the megafauna in this threatened habitat.
Citation
Amon D, Ziegler A, Kremenetskaia A, Mah C, Mooi R, O'Hara T, Pawson D, Roux M, Smith C (2017) Megafauna of the UKSRL exploration contract area and eastern Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the Pacific Ocean: Echinodermata. Biodiversity Data Journal 5: e11794.
Publisher
Journal
Research Unit
PubMed ID
PubMed Central ID
Embedded videos
Type
Journal Article
Item Description
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
NHM Repository
NHM Repository
Series/Report no.
ISSN
EISSN
1314-2828
ISBN
ISMN
GovDoc
Test Link
License
openAccess