Deep sea mining might stress out jellyfish, starve them to death, warn scientists

 Deep sea mining might stress out jellyfish, starve them to death, warn scientists

 Environmental scientists and biologists often raise concerns about the potential unintended consequences of human activities in the deep sea. The deep ocean is a poorly understood and fragile ecosystem, and disturbances to this environment could have cascading effects on marine life.

The expansive underwater communities of the world remain largely unexplored and surprisingly under-studied. However, a recent publication in Nature Communications provides initial insights into how deep pelagic jellyfish respond to stressors associated with global warming and deep-sea mining-induced sediment mounds.

Deep-sea drilling is of concern among scientists and environmentalists because of its potential impact on marine ecosystems.

Deep-sea mining involves extracting valuable minerals and resources from the ocean floor. The process can cause habitat destruction, change sediment patterns, and release potentially harmful substances into the water. These activities may have indirect effects on various marine organisms, including jellyfish, but their degree of stress and specific effects on survival will depend on the details of the mining activity and the specific ecosystem involved.

Study co-first author and director of marine ecology research at the Norwegian Research Center (NORCE). Helena House emphasized the importance of midwaters, which play an important role and act as the main carbon storage of the global oceans. Food source for various marine species. These organisms have evolved in stable conditions, experiencing constant food shortages, making them more vulnerable to potential environmental changes.

The study used a multifaceted approach to assess jellyfish stress, considering factors such as physiology, gene expression and microbial symbionts on the jellyfish's exterior. Vanessa Stenvers, co-first author and doctoral candidate at Geomar and the Smithsonian Institution, points out the complexities of stress determination in jellyfish.

During the study, jellyfish exhibited increased expression of genes related to respiration, innate immunity, and wound repair in response to elevated sediment treatment, indicating elevated stress. With climate projections predicting a one-degree rise in ocean temperatures over the next 84 years, the study's authors expressed concern that jellyfish could face starvation due to increased energy costs from human activities such as deep-sea mining. The pattern observed in helmet jellyfish suggests an increased need for food intake, which exacerbates the potential challenge and leads to starvation due to the general scarcity of food in the deep sea.