The MASTS Deep Sea Forum is excited to host this free online Open Forum Session with an interesting talk on the SMARTEX research project:
Speaker: Daniëlle de Jonge, Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC)
SMARTEX is a UK Natural Environment Research Council funded research project that aims to provide the critical scientific understanding of ecosystems and biodiversity associated with polymetallic nodules in a 6 million km2 region of the central Pacific ocean.
The nodules are targeted for industry, including the development of new sustainable technologies but the areas they are in are far from land and human influence. The nature and importance of the abyssal ecosystem is largely unknown, as is its capacity to cope with and recover from mining impacts if they occur.
The project aims to better understand the ecosystem in the Pacific abyss and how the different components interact and interconnect.
Image: Unsplash