Mining Impact 2
Environmental impacts and risks of deep-sea mining, JPI Oceans
The second project phase MiningImpact will study and monitor in real time the environmental impact of an industrial trial to mine manganese nodules on the seafloor which will be conducted simultaneously and independently by the Belgian contractor DEME-GSR in the Belgian an German licence areas in the Clarion-Clipperton-Zone. UALG is mainly involved in work related to the spatial and temporal quantification of the ecological effects of the sediment plume on benthic and planktonic fauna: tolerance to increased suspended particle concentration, physiological and ecotoxicological effects, epigenetic alterations, shifts in coral and deep-water microbial assemblages, reproductive aspects and larvae viability. Specifically, the work by UALG will focus on the ecotoxicological effects.