Abstract
The Japan Deep-Sea Impact Experiment (JET) is an in situ experiment aimed at evaluating the environmental impacts and recovery process arising from associated manganese nodule mining. The experiment was initiated in 1994 and ended in 1996. However, owing to the short monitoring period, it was not possible to gain adequate understanding of the recovery process. Subsequently, the Deep Ocean Resources Development Co., Ltd., revisited the site 17–18 years later and surveyed the environmental conditions (long-term monitoring survey). This survey found that the environmental impacts that were recognizable immediately after and 1 year after benthic disturbance were not visible after 17–18 years. This chapter presents the results of the long-term monitoring survey and discusses future plans of environmental impact evaluations.
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- 1.
JET (1994–1996) was conducted by the Metal Mining Agency of Japan (MMAJ; now called Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC).
- 2.
In this paper, meiobenthos excluding protozoa, such as foraminifera, are called metazoan meiobenthos.
- 3.
Since the size of meiobenthos was small, the influence of clogging was excluded in this paper.
- 4.
The redeposition area is divided into heavy, medium, light, and no deposition areas; the duration is classified into before, soon after, 1 year after, and 2 years after. Furthermore, separate comparisons are done for a group of organisms depending on organic matter in sediments and others. As a result of comparing it separately, it was possible to make a reasonable estimation.
- 5.
The theory that the biodiversity of deep sea benthic organisms is not too strong, is not too large, and is maintained by the impact repeated with moderate frequency (Connell 1978).
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Acknowledgment
This paper is based on results obtained from a project commissioned by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan. And we would like to thank Editage (www. Editage.jp) for English language editing.
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Fukushima, T., Tsune, A. (2019). Long-Term Monitoring of Environmental Conditions of Benthic Impact Experiment. In: Sharma, R. (eds) Environmental Issues of Deep-Sea Mining. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12696-4_7
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