COBRA Webinar – July 2024

Baselines, thresholds of harm, and monitoring strategies for microbial ecosystem services that could be impacted by deep-sea mining 

Dr. Beth Orcutt (Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and Associate Director of COBRA) and Dr. Julie Huber (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Director of COBRA)

Microbes provide important ecosystem services in the deep sea, such as the provision of food and genetic resources, the regulation of carbon capture and animal health, and the support of oxygen and nutrient cycling, among others. In order to understand if these services would be impacted by deep-sea mining activities requires having robust baselines on the magnitudes and natural variability of these services, of the thresholds for harm to these services, and strategies for monitoring if the services are changing and at risk of harm. COBRA convened a workshop of experts in October 2023, in collaboration with DOOS and ODL, to synthesize existing information on baselines for these services, to highlight the most important knowledge gaps that prevent understanding, and to develop recommendations on thresholds and monitoring strategies. In this webinar, preliminary synthesis results will be presented, inviting all interested stakeholders to provide feedback.