Deep Sea Mining: What are the risks?

During the launch event in Kiel, the project partners plan investigations to ecosystems around the manganese nodules. Photo: J. Steffen, GEOMAR

GEOMAR coordinates European cooperation for the risk assessment
01.29.2015 / Kiel. 50 specialists in deep-sea ecology, marine mining and deep-sea observation of 25 European research institutions meeting this week at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. This will free the start of a three-year research project to investigate the risks of potential ore mining on the seabed. The project called "JPI Oceans Ecological aspects of deep-sea mining" is coordinated at GEOMAR.

The world population is growing. This also means that more and more people need a home, want to work with computers and other electronic devices and consume energy. For the construction of houses for the manufacture of electronic goods, but also for the production of wind turbines will require significant amounts of various metals. Currently, all metal ores are promoted on almost a third of the earth's surface - on the continents. 

In some regions of the ocean manganese nodules are recorded in the Atlantic as here, close together on the ocean floors. Photo: Nils Brenke, CeNak

However, in recent decades engaged again, the other two thirds, the oceans, the focus of governments and resource companies. "Many questions about a potential ore mining in the deep sea, however, are still open," says Dr. Matthias Haeckel from GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. He is the scientific coordinator of the "Ecological aspects of deep-sea mining" project to investigate the potential environmental risks in the next three years. A consortium of research ministries in eleven European countries promotes it as part of the Joint Programme Healthy and Productive Seas (JPI Oceans) initiative with a total of 9.5 million euros. 

 In the Clarion-Clipperton Zone are the largest known manganese nodule deposits. Here, the ISA has been awarded 13 research licenses. Image Reproduced from the GEBCO world map 2014

This week, the project starts with a kick-off meeting at GEOMAR. A total of 25 partner institutions from these eleven countries involved in the project. The focus is primarily known as manganese nodules. It is spherical or cauliflower-shaped Erzknollen, which are usually at depths below 4000 meters on the large abyssal plains. They consist not only from the eponymous manganese, but also contain iron and coveted metals such as copper, cobalt or nickel. Already in the 1970s, there were initial plans to reduce manganese nodules from the deep sea, but never came out on trials. The largest reserves are currently known from the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone in the central Pacific. As a result of these activities in international waters on the basis of the International Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the International Seabed Authority (International Seabed Authority, ISA) was founded in 1994. 

It manages the entire seabed beyond the exclusive economic zone (200 nautical miles) of individual states. To date, the ISA has awarded 13 research licenses for exploration of manganese nodule fields in the Pacific, including in Germany and other European countries. 

                     Sample of the seabed in DISCOL area with top resting manganese nodules. 
                                                    Photo: M. Haeckel, GEOMAR

"But there is no mining licenses, which would only be a next step," said Dr. Haeckel. Since the ISA also aims to ensure effective protection of the marine environment from the potential consequences of ocean mining, relevant research for the licensees are required. "Of course industrial activities on the ocean floor will have an impact, because they disturb the soil and the water column about it," says Dr. Haeckel. Therefore, it is important to know the ecosystems on the sea floor and its local, regional and national connections and interactions accurately. Already this year, several expeditions of the new German research vessel SONNE in the Pacific are planned. 

The first trips in March and April perform the participating scientists to the German, Belgian and French license areas and in a defined by the ISA reserve in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. Further trips from July to October have the so-called DISCOL area in Peru Basin to the destination. There, in 1989, a very limited area of the seabed was plowed for research purposes. "The goal of this experiment is to recognize the long-term consequences of large-area device used for deep-sea sediments," explains Professor Jens Greinert from GEOMAR, who will lead one of the exits to DISCOL area. Now, a quarter century after the disturbance experiment, the scientists will examine the then machined seabed areas exactly compare with adjacent undisturbed areas to determine, can recover disturbed communities in the deep sea as fast. "We should get to know each other better before we start, a large area to intervene in the deep sea it easy," says project coordinator Dr. Haeckel. 

Source: GEOMAR

Satellite Animation Shows February Return of the Pineapple Express

An animation of satellite imagery from NOAA's GOES-West satellite from Feb. 1 to Feb. 4, 2015 captured the movement of a stream of clouds associated with moisture called "The Pineapple Express." Image Credit: NASA/NOAA GOES Project, Dennis Chesters

The "Pineapple Express" has set up again and is bringing wet weather to the U.S. Pacific Northwest. An animation of satellite imagery from NOAA's GOES-West satellite from Feb. 1 to Feb. 4, 2015 captured the movement of a stream of clouds associated with moisture that is expected to bring rain and snow to the region over the next several days.

The ‘‘Pineapple Express’’ occurs when warm air and lots of moisture are transported from the Central Pacific, near Hawaii, to the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

A wide-field movie by NOAA's GOES-West satellite shows the Pineapple Express' stream of clouds and moisture moving into the Pacific Northwest. The video was created by NASA/NOAA's GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

“Good news for Northern California and the Pacific Northwest," said Bill Patzert, climatologist for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "Beginning Wednesday, a series of storms pumped up by a moisture-laden ‘Pineapple Express’ system surging out of the warm tropical Pacific will deliver some small relief to rain and snow starved California. Though not a drought buster, we Californians are hoping this might be a preview of coming attractions for February and March. We are in the fourth quarter of our winter rain season and need a ‘hail mary’ to beat this drought down,” Patzert said.

On Feb.4 NOAA's National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center (NPC) in College Park, Maryland issued a short range forecast discussion about the Pineapple Express. NPC noted: A weather system that's tapping into abundant moisture in the Pacific will bring moderate to heavy rainfall to the Pacific Northwest beginning Wednesday. The rain will spread into northern California on Thursday and is expected to continue through the weekend. Some areas could see in excess of 10 inches of rain through early Saturday.

WATCH VIDEO

The Pineapple Express is expected to affect areas from northwest California into coastal Oregon and Washington State. NPC noted that the "Express" is expected to produce mostly light to moderate rainfall totals for the coastal Pacific Northwest on Feb. 4, with much heavier totals expected the following two days.

GOES satellites provide the kind of continuous monitoring necessary for intensive data analysis. Geostationary describes an orbit in which a satellite is always in the same position with respect to the rotating Earth. This allows GOES to hover continuously over one position on Earth's surface, appearing stationary. As a result, GOES provide a constant vigil for the atmospheric "triggers" for severe weather conditions such as tornadoes, flash floods, hail storms and hurricanes.

Source: Nasa

New research shows ocean warming poses "immediate threat" to keystone reef-building coral in the Caribbean

New research published in The Proceeding of the Royal Society - Biological Sciences provides new insights on the threat  ocean warming poses on coral growth in Mesoamerican barrier reefs.  The research, partially funded by CPO's Climate Monitoring program, used laboratory experiments to examine the adverse effects of ocean warming and acidification, and showed that the warming predicted by the IPCC for the end of the 21st century produced a five-fold decrease in coral calcification - the process by which corals produce calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and build reefs.

“The reef-building coral Siderastrea siderea exhibits parabolic responses to ocean acidification and warming,” is part of on-going work of NOAA-funded researcher Dr. Justin Ries that is looking at various aspects of climate variability, change, and ocean acidification on coral growth.  Dr. Ries and colleagues have been examining long term coral reef growth patterns at one of the largest barrier reefs in the world, off the coast of southern Belize. The research aims to create100 year records of coral growth at this reef by examining growth rates and environmental factors. As part of this work, Dr. Ries and his team found substantially decreasing growth rates over the last several years, at the same time that ocean acidification and temperature have been increasing.

Massive Starlet Coral (Siderastrea siderea) Image courtesy: D. Gordon E. Robertson via Creative Commons

This new research, led by post-doctoral researcher Dr. Karl Castillo, was designed to isolate the effects increasing ocean acidification and temperature had on Siderastrea sidereal, an important keystone and reef building coral species at the reef. By extracting coral colonies and returning them to the lab, researchers were able to design separate experiments around increasing temperature and decreasing ocean pH, and measure the coral response. While the most adverse effects on corals may arise from both acidification and temperature warming, researchers wanted to better understand the specific responses to these individually, which could aid efforts to predict and potentially mitigate the impacts of changing ocean conditions on coral.

They found that both ocean acidification and ocean warming had a “parabolic effect” on this important coral species. This means that while moderate decreases in the pH of seawater and moderate rises in temperature led to increases in coral building, in both cases researchers found a “tipping point” at which the coral calcification rates started decreasing. For ocean acidification, researchers recreated seawater conditions that would occur from the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration from pre-industrial up through the present, the predicted end-of-century value, and up to six times the present condition. They found the “tipping point” at which calcification started leveling off and finally decreasing was actually well past the acidifications that would be expected by the end of century. For this particular species, they concluded, ocean acidification expected over the next century alone may not have a significant adverse effect.

Figure 1: Rates of reef-building calcification observed during the experiment for (left panel) increasing levels of ocean acidification and (right panel) temperatures ranging from 25C to 32C.

For warming ocean temperatures, however, the results were very different.  For the temperature experiments, researchers grew the coral colonies in temperatures from 25C to 32C, which covers the range of annual minimum and maximum temperatures of ocean temperatures recorded near the reef over 2002-2014, as well as annual average seawater temperatures expected over the next century. Thus the researchers were hoping to capture how the coral responds to the year to year variability seen now as well as what general conditions are predicted to by like by the end of the century. They found that while reef-building calcification rates increased for corals at 28C relative to 32C, skeletal building dropped off dramatically – nearly 80% - in corals growing at 32C. This parabolic response indicates that for this important reef building species, ocean warming over the next few decades could be an immediate serious threat, as conditions pass what the research found to be a species tipping point. Researchers note that the actual reef will experience changes in both stressors – ocean acidification and ocean warming – together over the next century, and will continue to work to understand how this and other reefs may respond.

You can watch a YouTube video on this and other aspects of Dr. Ries coral reef research here:  



Source: CRO