Bigelow Lab leads project to connect deep-sea research worldwide

Courtesy / Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, cruise AT26-09, chief scientist Dr. C. Geoff Wheat, 2013 Deep-sea expert and Bigelow Lab scientist Beth Orcutt was part of an expedition that made the first discovery of octopus brooding their eggs on rocks at the Dorado Outcrop at 2 miles below the sea surface offshore Costa Rica. Deep-sea ecosystems like these might be threatened by emergent human activities like deep-sea mining, she said.

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By Laurie Schreiber

Two-thirds of the earth’s surface is covered by deep ocean seafloor, but little is known about the ecosystem and its ability to withstand human impacts.

The Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay aims to create a global network of deep-sea stakeholders that will allow them to share their knowledge and inform decision-making about new industrial uses of the ocean and decrease the potential for serious harm to the environment.

The lab recently received a grant of $2 million from the National Science Foundation for its Crustal Ocean Biosphere Research Accelerator, or COBRA, project.

COBRA has several goals:

• It will connect academic and government scientists, private institutions, policy makers, industry experts and other stakeholders in a common mission to accelerate research on the structure, function, resilience and ecosystem of the deep-sea biosphere.

• It will train at least 50 globally distributed early-career researchers in ocean exploration, science and policy through virtual expedition leadership training, and support two dozen international research exchanges that promote team science collaboration, diversity, equity and inclusivity.

• It will establish a web-based search portal for international deep-sea data repositories.

Emerging industries

The Crustal Ocean Biosphere Research Accelerator responds to the emergence of new deep-sea industries, including deep-sea mining and carbon sequestration, which may soon alter the environmental conditions of the seafloor, said Beth Orcutt, a senior research scientist at Bigelow and COBRA’s director.

Courtesy / JOIDES Resolution Science Operator of the International Ocean Discovery Program, 2019

Beth Orcutt

Those activities have the potential to rival negative effects from bottom fishing and other human affects on the deep sea, yet the science to inform and evaluate the impacts of these new industries is lacking, she said.

“These are two emerging industries in international waters,” she told Mainebiz.

Orcutt is a marine microbial biogeochemist who explores life below the seafloor in sediments and the oceanic crust. Her goal is to understand how microbes thrive in deep-sea environments and how their lives impact the cycling of elements on Earth, according to her bio.

She’s been on over three dozen expeditions in the deep sea. In 2018, Orcutt and another Bigelow senior researcher, Jim McManus, were part of an expedition funded by the National Science Foundation that discovered an octopus nursery in a place the animal was believed not to exist — nearly 2 miles deep in the Pacific Ocean.

“It was like an underwater octopus garden,” Orcutt said.

Cobalt and smartphones

Courtesy / Jackie Goordial

Orcutt and her team regularly use Jason, a remotely operated vehicle owned by Woods Hole (Mass.) Oceanographic Institution, for seafloor research.

Over the past decade, new technologies have been advancing at a rapid clip that make new deep-sea industries possible, she said.

Consumer demand for products like smartphones and electric cars is driving interest in deep-sea mining for metals like cobalt and rare earth elements, which are used in lithium-ion batteries, according to Bigelow.

The International Seabed Authority of the United Nations is working to establish guidelines for countries and contractors to explore the seafloor for minerals, and to eventually mine them.

Orcutt and her colleagues have analyzed the potential impacts of mining on microbial ecosystems.

One of the biggest challenges, before a new mining industry begins, is to understand the mineral resource, its role in the ecosystem, and the potential harm from human activity, she said.

“Humans have seen only about 1% of the seafloor with their own eyes, using video cameras,” she said. “There’s a lot down there that we don’t know.”

Carbon storage

The deep-sea floor is also viewed as a potential storage area for carbon, as a way to reduce atmospheric greenhouse gases. Researchers are testing the concept, Orcutt said.

“We don’t know what the potential impacts will be,” she said.

When will these industries be up and running?

“That’s the crystal ball question,” Orcutt said with a laugh.

Although there’s industrial and economic interest in mining, many conservation organizations have raised alarms about moving too quickly before potential harms are understood, she said.

“Unlike on land, where ecosystems can recover in human life scales, the available evidence from deep-sea mining trials suggests that impacts caused would take more than a human life scale to be reversed,” she said. “The worry is that, if we damage the ecosystem, that could be forever.”

Equal data access

The COBRA project will facilitate, coordinate and leverage international research projects and assets in order to accelerate knowledge with the goal of informing policy decision-making, she said.

The project will also foster equity and inclusion by making information available to all countries.

“A big part of this project is to make sure that this effort is international and takes into consideration the viewpoint of scientists and students and policymakers from countries that are often not part of the deep-sea research because they don’t have access to the ships and submarines,” she said.

“The resources we’re talking about are often in international waters and, according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, those resources belong to everyone and should be managed to the benefit of all of humanity. So one part of this project is to make sure all voices are heard and not just the richer nations that have these capabilities.”