Neither desolate nor empty: Deep-sea floor teems with life

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The Arctic deep sea harbors significant oil and natural gas reserves along with valuable resources such as rare earths and metals. Climate change and melting ice are facilitating access to these resources, which presents economic opportunities but also major ecological risks.

In an overview study published in the journal Elementa, a research team shows that the Arctic Ocean boasts a great diversity of habitats and organisms, many of which have been poorly studied to date.

The team analyzed 75,000 data sets on 2,637 deep-sea species. The researchers emphasize the need for more intensive research and international cooperation to ensure the protection of this sensitive ecosystem in the face of growing economic interests.

According to estimates, the deep sea could contain up to 13% of as yet undiscovered global oil reserves and 30% of natural gas reserves. This is yet another reason for the increased political and economic focus on the Arctic Ocean. In addition to fossil fuel deposits, the deep sea around the North Pole offers a multitude of valuable resources such as rare earths and metals.

The acceleration of global trade through transportation along new northeast and northwest passages as well as a growing focus on Arctic tourism are sparking additional commercial interest. "Climate change and the melting of sea ice are increasingly facilitating the exploration of the Arctic Ocean, but this also entails major ecological risks," explains Prof. Dr. Angelika Brandt from the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum in Frankfurt.

"Although we have made considerable progress in understanding the Arctic ecosystem with the aid of new technologies and infrastructures, there are still major gaps in our knowledge of the deep-sea communities living on the sea floor—as clearly demonstrated by our new study."

Led by Dr. Eva Ramirez-Llodra and Heidi K. Meyer from the Institute of Marine Research in Bergen, Norway, Senckenberg scientists Dr. Hanieh Saeedi, Prof. Dr. Angelika Brandt, Prof. Dr. Saskia Brix, and seven more researchers, namely Dr. Stefanie Kaiser, Severin A. Korfhage, Karlotta Kürzel, Dr. Anne Helene S. Tandberg, Dr. James Taylor, Franziska I. Theising and Carolin Uhlir, together with researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and an international team, compiled an overview of the benthic organisms living in the Arctic Ocean.

To this end, the scientists evaluated 75,404 data sets on 2,637 different deep-sea species from freely accessible databases, information facilities, and non-digitized scientific literature. "We limited ourselves to the area north of 66 degrees northern latitude and below a depth of 500 meters," explains Brix.

"The most frequent individual records, with 21,405 hits, concerned the phylum Arthropoda, which includes isopods and copepods, among others, followed by annelids and sponges. The latter are surpassed by mollusks in species richness," adds Saeedi.

A compilation of habitat maps also shows that the Arctic features a wide variety of geomorphological structures—from submarine canyons and continental slopes to seamounts and biologically generated formations such as extensive cold-water coral reefs.

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"Not only did we comprehensively digitize important deep-sea data and publish it in freely accessible databases, but we also collected, checked, and comprehensively analyzed new deep-sea data. This enabled us to show that, contrary to popular belief, the Arctic Ocean actually has a very rich diversity of organisms," says Saeedi.

By linking faunal groups with areas of different geomorphology, the research team was able to identify regions with a particular paucity of data—veritable data gaps. "The intergenerational collaboration within the framework of the UN Ocean Decade and the international cooperation with deep-sea experts and the AWI were crucial for this study," adds Brix.

"It is undisputed that the deep sea in the Arctic Ocean is far from being the lifeless, monotonous habitat it was described as by its early explorers. However, we need intensified international networking and cooperation as well as active monitoring of environmental parameters and the faunal composition.

"This is the only way for us to better understand the structure and function of the Arctic ecosystem and to ensure that measures are taken to preserve this unique ecosystem, which is of such importance to the northern hemisphere.

"Especially in view of the increasing economic and political interests, the lack of data on benthic biodiversity—particularly in the deep basins of the central Arctic Ocean—poses a significant problem for robust management and conservation measures," warns Saeedi.

More information: Eva Ramirez-Llodra et al, The emerging picture of a diverse deep Arctic Ocean seafloor: From habitats to ecosystems, Elementa (2024). DOI: 10.1525/elementa.2023.00140

Provided by Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum