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A five-year study of sediment-dwelling animals in the Pacific’s Clarion-Clipperton Zone identified 788 species among 4,350 collected animals. A mining-machine trial was followed by sharp declines in animal abundance and species richness inside the machine’s tracks. But the results do not show that all 788 species will disappear: they measure local effects on one group of seabed animals, and long-term survival and recovery remain uncertain.
What did scientists find?
The researchers identified 788 species in 4,350 sediment-dwelling macrofaunal animals collected in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a Pacific abyssal region targeted for polymetallic nodule mining. The National Oceanography Centre reported those figures in 2025. The animals were mainly marine worms, crustaceans and molluscs.
That is a species count from the sampled material, not a complete inventory of life across the CCZ. Nor does it mean that 788 species were formally described as new to science. Many were undescribed, and DNA-based evidence helped researchers identify and classify them. As study co-lead Thomas Dahlgren of the University of Gothenburg noted, molecular data was crucial to the taxonomic work.
What did the mining-machine trial do to the animals?
In the collector’s direct tracks, the National Oceanography Centre reported 37% fewer animals and 32% fewer species than in the comparison used by the study. These are different measures: abundance is the number of animals, while species richness is the number of species in an area. The study also found that sample-size-independent diversity measures remained unchanged in the directly affected tracks, so the richness decline should not be treated as a measure of every aspect of biodiversity.
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The pattern differed outside the tracks. In plume-affected areas about 400 metres away, researchers detected no overall change in animal abundance, but the mix of dominant species shifted. That finding does not establish that the plume had no ecological effect: a change in which species are common can matter even when the total number of animals does not change.
| Exposure area | Animal abundance | Species richness | Other reported result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct collector tracks | 37% reduction (National Oceanography Centre, 2025) | 32% reduction (National Oceanography Centre, 2025) | Sample-size-independent diversity measures remained unchanged (National Oceanography Centre, 2025) |
| Plume-affected area, about 400 metres away | No overall impact detected (National Oceanography Centre, 2025) | Not stated (National Oceanography Centre, 2025) | Community dominance shifted (National Oceanography Centre, 2025) |
How did researchers separate mining effects from natural change?
The team sampled over five years, with three sampling rounds before the mining test and one two months after it. The Natural History Museum in London reported that the researchers analyzed 80 sediment samples collected across four expeditions. They compared affected locations with controls and spatially comparable sites.
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That comparison matters because the seabed community also changed between pre-test sampling periods. Researchers say natural variation may be linked to changes in food reaching the seafloor, potentially associated with climate cycles. Without accounting for that background variation, it would be harder to distinguish a mining-related change from a change that was already occurring.
Does this mean the 788 species might not survive?
The study shows localized harm to sampled macrofaunal communities in the machine tracks; it does not show that the 788 identified species will go extinct or fail to survive. The study’s scope was sediment-dwelling macrofauna, not every kind of deep-sea organism, and its observations do not establish the full effect of mining on the CCZ ecosystem.
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Researchers also do not yet know which species live in protected parts of the CCZ or how well those protected areas are biologically connected to mined regions. Those unknowns make it difficult to model extinction risk across the zone. Whether affected communities recover or recolonize will require follow-up study.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the study can—and cannot—tell us
- It can show: measurable declines in animal abundance and species richness within the tested machine tracks, alongside a different response in the nearby plume-affected area.
- It cannot show: that every one of the 788 identified species is new, that all are threatened with extinction, or that the sampled macrofauna represent every deep-sea organism in the region.
- It leaves unresolved: how impacts and recovery unfold over the long term, and how species in protected parts of the CCZ may affect risk across mined areas.
The findings come from “Impacts of an industrial deep-sea mining trial on macrofaunal biodiversity,” published in Nature Ecology & Evolution. Lead author Eva Stewart, a PhD student at the Natural History Museum and University of Southampton, said the work provides data on impacts from a modern commercial deep-sea mining machine while also revealing natural change in the abyssal ecosystem.
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