standardization of environmental data and information - International ...

Consequently, in sampling these regions there would be a danger in
having only one cruise per year, as a particular cruise could pick up the
bloom in one period but not in another. He therefore recommended several
cruises, perhaps four in a year. He also endorsed Smith’s suggestion for a
mooring site so that the region could be studied continuously over a year.
He noted that many of the classical studies on which these data were based
had been carried out quite early, in the 1960s and 1970s, before the
importance of the microbial loop had been recognized and before the roles
of microzooplankton and very small phytoplankton had been examined, so
that much of this work needed to be revised. Moreover, methodologies had
changed; trace metal clean techniques had often shown higher productivity
in areas that had appeared to have low productivity, an effect that might
prove particularly true for the very small phytoplankton cells predominant in
the upper layers.
Both of these biogeographic provinces with different dynamics were
high in diversity. While probably not as diverse as some of the benthic
areas that had thousands and thousands of species, they were among the
most diverse pelagic systems in the world’s oceans, with hundreds of
species of copepods alone. Even though productivity was low, there was
probably a latitudinal gradient in production, making it important to sample
along a latitudinal gradient as the Japanese and Korean teams had been
doing. Another important factor was that interannual variability might be
greater than seasonal variability. That fact had emerged from the Korean
work, where sampling across the El Niño / La Niña cycle had shown clear
impacts. Hence the need to resolve this seasonal variability question with
either a number of cruises or a mooring.
Potential impacts of mining
Koslow recalled the consensus at the 1998 ISA Workshop in Sanya,
China, that the discharge of deep water and tailings from a mining
operation should take place at fairly deep levels 26 . It was unclear to him
whether such a rule would be put into effect or how much leakage might
occur. In his discussion, he assumed that there would be at least some
discharge in the surface waters, but clearly, it was desirable to minimise the
amount.
Among the potential impacts on microbiology, mining discharges
might strip the water column of aggregates and particulates, and reduce the
roles of nutrient recycling and the microbial loop. For the phytoplankton,
transport of nutrient-rich deepwater into the euphotic zone would enhance
410
INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY