Habitat filtering of bacterioplankton communities above polymetallic nodule fields and sediments in the Clarion-Clipperton zone of the Pacific Ocean.

Deep-sea mining of commercially valuable polymetallic nodule fields will generate a seabed sediment plume into the water column. Yet, the response of bacterioplankton communities, critical in regulating energy and matter fluxes in marine ecosystems, to such disturbances is unknown. Metacommunity theory, traditionally used in general ecology for macroorganisms, offers mechanistic understanding on the relative role of spatial differences compared with local environmental conditions (habitat filtering) for community assembly.

From the Surface to the Deep-Sea: Bacterial Distributions across Polymetallic Nodule Fields in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean.

Marine bacteria regulate fluxes of matter and energy essential for pelagic and benthic organisms and may also be involved in the formation and maintenance of commercially valuable abyssal polymetallic nodules. Future mining of these nodule fields is predicted to have substantial effects on biodiversity and physicochemical conditions in mined areas. Yet, the identity and distributions of bacterial populations in deep-sea sediments and associated polymetallic nodules has received relatively little attention.

Polymetallic nodules, sediments, and deep waters in the equatorial North Pacific exhibit highly diverse and distinct bacterial, archaeal, and microeukaryotic communities.

Concentrated seabed deposits of polymetallic nodules, which are rich in economically valuable metals (e.g., copper, nickel, cobalt, manganese), occur over vast areas of the abyssal Pacific Ocean floor.