IMIS - Marine Onderzoeksgroepen

During the Global Sea Mineral Resources (GSR, Deme Group, Belgium) environmental baseline campaign of 2017 (May-June, GSRNOD17) a total of four stations (three rich in nodules and one poor in nodules) were sampled across two sites (B4 and B6)with stations located at about 4500 m depth at the Clarion Clipperton nodule fields habitats. We collected deep-sea meiofauna (e.g. Nematoda, Copepoda, Polychaeta) and macrofauna (e.g. Amphipoda, Isopoda, Polychaeta, Tanaidacea) to analyse for natural stable isotope (∂13C and ∂15N) signatures. Meiofauna organisms were sampled by Multi corer (10 cm inner diameter) and the 0-5 cm bulk sediment layer were sieved over a 32 µm mesh size sieve after being stored at -20°C. Macrofauna organisms were sampled by box-corer (0.25 m^2) with the first 0-5 cm layer sieved on board at 4°C over a 300 µm mesh size. We aimed at calculating food-web metrics and comparing the different habitats and sites to identify possible vulnerabilities of the two size classes to potential future deep-seabed mining.

(GSR service agreement)