REVIEW article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Deep-Sea Environments and Ecology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1650660
The influence of habitat heterogeneity and disturbance on benthic community structure in deep-sea polymetallic nodule environments and management implications for seabed mining
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
- 2National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
- 3Biologie et Ecologie des Environnements Marins Profonds, Plouzané, France
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Habitat heterogeneity is known to influence faunal community structure, but its influence on deep-sea benthic communities remains understudied, particularly for polymetallic nodule environments in abyssal waters. As nodules are currently of interest for mining, understanding the potential impact of this disturbance on habitat heterogeneity, and the subsequent effect on faunal communities, becomes critical for developing environmental management plans. Although some aspects of the influence of habitat heterogeneity on the nodule-associated fauna have been studied, the influence on multiple size components of the benthic community across varying spatial scales has not yet been fully assessed, and the current metrics by which habitat heterogeneity is measured may be insufficient. This review synthesizes existing research regarding habitat heterogeneity, the influence of disturbance on habitat heterogeneity, and the influence of this heterogeneity on metazoan fauna (megafauna, macrofauna, and meiofauna) in polymetallic nodule environments across spatial scales. Current gaps in knowledge and the implications of this knowledge for the management of proposed deep-seabed mining are also discussed.
Keywords: habitat heterogeneity, polymetallic nodules, deep sea, deep-sea mining, community structure, disturbance, Biodiversity, Spatial scales
Received: 20 Jun 2025; Accepted: 30 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ullmann, Rowden, Leduc and Zeppilli. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ailish Ullmann, ailish.ullmann@gmail.com
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