Phylogenetic clustering and rarity imply risk of local species extinction in prospective deep-sea mining areas of the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Ghent University
An understanding of the forces controlling community structure in the deep sea is essential at a time when its pristineness is threatened by polymetallic nodule mining. Because abiotically defined communities are more sensitive to environmental change, we applied occurrence- and phylogeny-based metrics to determine the importance of biotic versus abiotic structuring processes in nematodes, the most abundant invertebrate taxon of the ...