standardization of environmental data and information - International ...

ecover. In the case of the seabed, it might take a million years to recover
the original community if all the manganese nodules were removed.
Smith replied that that was certainly true for the nodule fauna,
which were probably the most poorly studied of the seafloor biota. Citing
doctoral work on nodule fauna by Mullineaux at Scripps Institution of
Oceanography (University of California, San Diego) 27 , he said there was
preliminary evidence that nodule fauna might be more widely distributed
than sediment fauna. The investigator had found what looked like much
the same animal communities on nodules about 4000-5000 miles apart in
the Central Pacific Ocean and the CCFZ. This matter was worth
investigating in more detail.
Another participant thought the size and shape of the nodules made
a difference. Nodules in the South Pacific Ocean looked quite different
from those in the CCFZ. Bussau 28 had identified nematode species that
lived only in the crevices of nodules and not in the sediment. After mining,
these animals would have lost their living space.
Scope of environmental research
A participant commented that, whereas most environmental impact
research was concerned with such issues as before-and-after assessment,
Smith was raising strategic questions such as species range and dose
response. As these were not questions to be answered by typical
environmental impact assessment approaches, there would be a need for
longer-term research programmes to deal with strategic matters. Agreeing,
Smith favoured a pooling of resources by contractors with a view to studying
the sorts of issues he had mentioned that were difficult to resolve. A
distinction should be drawn between baseline monitoring to be carried out
at every site and sampling or dose-response studies at a single site whose
results could be generalized. Topics such as species range – how broadly
species were distributed – required sampling at a number of sites and
should be integrated into each baseline study.
Notes and References
1. C.R. Smith (1999), The biological environment of nodule provinces in the deep sea,
Deep-Seabed Polymetallic Nodule Exploration: Development of Environmental
Guidelines (International Seabed Authority, Kingston, Jamaica), 41-68; H. Thiel. and
INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY 84