Abstract
Climate change manifestation in the ocean, through warming, oxygen loss, increasing acidification, and changing particulate organic carbon flux (one metric of altered food supply), is projected to affect most deep‐ocean ecosystems concomitantly with increasing direct human disturbance. Climate drivers will alter deep‐sea biodiversity and associated ecosystem services, and may interact with disturbance from resource extraction activities or even climate geoengineering. We suggest that to ensure the effective management of increasing use of the deep ocean (e.g., for bottom fishing, oil and gas extraction, and deep‐seabed mining), environmental management and developing regulations must consider climate change. Strategic planning, impact assessment and monitoring, spatial management, application of the precautionary approach, and full‐cost accounting of extraction activities should embrace climate consciousness. Coupled climate and biological modeling approaches applied in the water and on the seafloor can help accomplish this goal. For example, Earth‐System Model projections of climate‐change parameters at the seafloor reveal heterogeneity in projected climate hazard and time of emergence (beyond natural variability) in regions targeted for deep‐seabed mining. Models that combine climate‐induced changes in ocean circulation with particle tracking predict altered transport of early life stages (larvae) under climate change. Habitat suitability models can help assess the consequences of altered larval dispersal, predict climate refugia, and identify vulnerable regions for multiple species under climate change. Engaging the deep observing community can support the necessary data provisioning to mainstream climate into the development of environmental management plans. To illustrate this approach, we focus on deep‐seabed mining and the International Seabed Authority, whose mandates include regulation of all mineral‐related activities in international waters and protecting the marine environment from the harmful effects of mining. However, achieving deep‐ocean sustainability under the UN Sustainable Development Goals will require integration of climate consideration across all policy sectors.
Highlights
Pervasive climate-change impacts in the ocean, recognized as warming, acidification, deoxygenation, and a myriad of physical changes in water mass properties, affect all marine ecosystems, including those in the deep sea (Bindoff et al, 2019; Jones et al, 2014; Sweetman et al, 2017; Yasuhara & Danovaro, 2016)
We focus on deep-seabed mining and the International Seabed Authority, whose mandates include regulation of all mineral-related activities in international waters and protecting the marine environment from the harmful effects of mining
The deep ocean hosts a spectrum of living and non-living resources that are increasingly vulnerable to exploitation (Mengerink et al, 2014) and provide key services that range from fisheries production and novel genetic resources to climate regulation and space for communication cables (Thurber et al, 2014)
Summary
Pervasive climate-change impacts in the ocean, recognized as warming, acidification, deoxygenation, and a myriad of physical changes in water mass properties, affect all marine ecosystems, including those in the deep sea (Bindoff et al, 2019; Jones et al, 2014; Sweetman et al, 2017; Yasuhara & Danovaro, 2016). The CCZ goals include the following: (a) facilitating environmentally responsible exploitation of seabed mineral resources; (b) helping halt biodiversity loss, establishing ecosystem approaches to management, and developing MPAs; (c) maintaining regional biodiversity, ecosystem structure, and ecosystem function; (d) managing the region consistent with integrated ecosystem-based management; (e) enabling the preservation of representative and unique ecosystems; (f) using (“capitalize on”) available data; (g) environmental monitoring; and (h) promoting cooperative research to better understand environmental conditions in the region to inform future rules, regulations, and procedures. Governance solutions require comprehensive research to understand climate-change interactions with direct cumulative effects of human activities in the deep sea, deep-ocean biodiversity, access to data and information, application of the precautionary approach in decision-making, assessment of cumulative impacts, strategic environmental assessments (SEAs), better understanding of the role of area-based management tools (including MPAs) in building resilience to climate change, and cooperation and coordination among institutions. In addition to provisioning services (i.e., fish, energy, minerals), climate change
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