BAN DEEP SEA MINING

Hidden worlds in the deep ocean

New study shows that polymetallic nodules are important habitats for tiny marine organisms

MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen

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A crustacean of the species Munidopsis sp. among polymetallic nodules in the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone (CCZ). The wrinkled structure of the nodules, which were examined in detail in the study, is clearly visible. The photo was taken during Expedition SO268 using the ROV KIEL6000. Photo: ROV Kiel 6000, GEOMAR, Kiel

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Credit: Photo: ROV Kiel 6000, GEOMAR, Kiel

A Tiny Home in the Deep Sea

Polymetallic nodules are fist-sized, dark lumps of iron and manganese oxides that grow extremely slowly over millions of years – often just a few millimeters per million years. At depths of 4,000 to 6,000 meters, they form rare hard surfaces on the otherwise soft, muddy seafloor. The researchers investigated who lives in the tiny cracks and cavities of these nodules.

Dr. Tanja Stratmann, one of the three lead authors and a deep-sea ecologist, explains: “In our study we show that the sizes of cracks inside the nodules are large enough to provide home to animals that are smaller than a millimeter in size.”

To find these organisms, the scientists used, among other things, box corers and diving robots to collect samples from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the central Pacific. The nodules were carefully dissected in the laboratory to extract the organisms from the crevices.

Unique Communities and Concrete Numbers
What makes this research unique is the finding that the nodules not only provide a surface but also create a three-dimensional habitat through their internal structure. An analysis of 244 nodules revealed a total of 4,139 individual animals. On average, 17 individuals lived in each nodule, although in one instance as many as 245 animals were found in a single nodule.

Dr. Coral Diaz-Recio Lorenzo, explains: “The crevices in the polymetallic nodules function as small shelters and provide home to animals that we do not encounter in the soft sediment of the seafloor.”

Although the number of animals in the polymetallic nodules is lower than in the surrounding sediment – for roundworms (nematodes), it corresponds to about 10%, and for small crustaceans (copepods), about 25% of the total in the sediment – it is nonetheless significant for the entire ecosystem. It is particularly important that the species composition differs. Genetic analyses showed that the communities within the nodules were very similar across wide distances (up to 1,000 km) but differed significantly from the animals in the sediment.

Risks Associated with Deep-Sea Mining
These findings have significant societal implications, as polymetallic nodules are considered a target for industrial deep-sea mining due to the metals they contain, such as nickel, cobalt, and copper. However, since the nodules take millions of years to form, their extraction would result in the loss of this unique habitat and all associated life. One example is the single-celled species Thurammina sp. 1, which is particularly common in the nodules. This species appears to be perfectly adapted to the sheltered spaces within the nodules. If the nodules were extracted, there would be no replacement for these specialized inhabitants. Such a loss would be permanent on geological time scales, as the nodules do not regrow within human lifetimes but need millions of years.

Prof. Sabine Gollner: “Our findings point out that commercial mining may result in an irreversible loss of undescribed and unique biodiversity associated to nodules. This needs to be considered in environmental management of deep-sea mining.”

This new knowledge underscores that the protection of the deep sea must take into account not only large animals but also microscopic inhabitants. Future research must now determine whether the loss of these local communities would lead to the global extinction of certain species or whether the animals could survive in other areas. These findings are essential for planning protected areas and assessing the environmental impacts of deep-sea mining projects. To this end, Dr. Tanja Stratmann is currently on an international research expedition to the Clarion-Clipperton Zone to further study the polymetallic nodule ecosystem. These and other follow-up studies are independently funded as part of the JPIOcean projects MiningImpact 2 and 3.

 

Participating Institutions (Alphabetical Order):

• Avans University of Applied Sciences, Breda (Biomedical Laboratory Research), Netherlands
• Department of Biology, Ghent University, Belgium
• Faculty of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, Netherlands
• IFREMER, Centre Bretagne, France
• Marine Ecology and Management (MARECO), Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Belgium
• MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen, Germany
• NIOZ – Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Netherlands
• Roscoff Biological Research Station (Sorbonne University), France
• University of Paderborn, Germany

MARUM produces fundamental scientific knowledge about the role of the ocean and the seafloor in the total Earth system. The dynamics of the oceans and the seabed significantly impact the entire Earth system through the interaction of geological, physical, biological and chemical processes. These influence both the climate and the global carbon cycle, resulting in the creation of unique biological systems. MARUM is committed to fundamental and unbiased research in the interests of society, the marine environment, and in accordance with the sustainability goals of the United Nations. It publishes its quality-assured scientific data to make it publicly available. MARUM informs the public about new discoveries in the marine environment and provides practical knowledge through its dialogue with society. MARUM cooperation with companies and industrial partners is carried out in accordance with its goal of protecting the marine environment.

Graphical summary of the microbial communities on polymetallic nodules. 

Credit: Dr. Coral Diaz-Recio Lorenzo

Journal

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-026-76737-w

Article Title

Polymetallic nodules provide a distinct habitat for abyssal meiofauna

Article Publication Date

11-Nov-2026

 

The cable knew it was bent: a self-aware fibre-optic towed array maps waves and hears a source 5.7 km away

Harbin Engineering University ran 128 interferometric hydrophones and 32 distributed-sensing elements in one 770 m towed cable, then fed the measured array shape back into beamforming

Innovation Press

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A survey vessel tows a 770 m hybrid fibre-optic cable in which an interferometric section (128 hydrophones over 104 m, blue) provides high-signal-to-noise acoustic detection while a distributed acoustic sensing section (32 elements at 5 m spacing over 160 m, red) also senses its own depth and the ocean wave field. Both sections use identical air-backed mandrels (42 mm long, 11.6 mm outer diameter) but differ in wound-fibre length and optical readout. In the open-sea trial the array was towed about 500 m astern, and a cooperative acoustic source 5.7 km away provided 1 kHz test pulses. Adapted from Figure 1A of the published article.

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Credit: Li S., Chai Q., Jia M., et al., (2026). A smart fiber-optic towed hydrophone array for open-sea cruising observation. The Innovation 7(9), 101534. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xinn.2026.101534

A vessel towing several hundred metres of hydrophone cable carries a blind spot: the cable bends under current and drag, and the software that turns its signals into bearings assumes a straight line. A team in China has built a towed array that measures its own depth and curvature while it listens, using the same optical fibre that carries the sound.

Towed arrays are prized because a long aperture sharpens bearing estimates, and because they are passive, cheap and easily launched. Beamforming, the step that converts arrival delays across elements into a direction, needs each element's true position. Conventional arrays carry a few depth sensors, so the shape between them is guessed; a curved array then smears the focus and biases the bearing.

The new cable, 770 m long and towed about 500 m astern, divides the work. An interferometric section of 128 elements over 104 m, each wound with 22 m of fibre, does the sensitive listening. A distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) section of 32 elements at 5 m spacing over 160 m reads optical phase along the fibre and doubles as a depth gauge, since hydrostatic pressure shifts that phase. Both ride on the same air-backed mandrel, 42 mm long and 11.6 mm across. The data are then split by frequency: below 0.02 Hz for depth and shape, 0.02–0.3 Hz for waves, 5 Hz–2 kHz for sound.

Depth came out right. Against a pressure sensor, DAS-inferred depth gave a coefficient of determination of 0.99 and average deviation of 0.80%; the reconstructed profile showed the cable bowing, not lying flat. In the wave band the measured spectral peaks, 0.102 and 0.098 Hz, sat near the 0.105 and 0.107 Hz expected once towing speed and heading were taken into account, differing by 2.86% and 8.41%. Significant wave height, retrieved from the same spectra and corrected for element depth, ranged from 1.41 to 2.66 m, within 4.31% and 11.03% of the Copernicus wave model. At 50 m tow depth the authors estimate a detection floor of 0.15 m and a dynamic range of 180 dB.

For sound, the DAS section ran 11.57 dB above its own land-quiet baseline across 5–2,000 Hz, while the interferometric elements stayed quieter above about 2 kHz. Beamforming tracked a GPS reference bearing in two bands: one carrying vessel noise at 120–150 Hz, the other 1 kHz pulses from the distant source. Feeding the measured depth profile into the array model lifted peak beamforming power by up to 4.10 dB.

The limits belong to open-water deployments in December 2025 and January 2026: one vessel, one speed, one sea state, with coastal and shallow water untested. Depth and wave retrieval lean on pressure, so accuracy will drift with tow depth and heavy weather. What the trial shows is a towed array that calibrates itself in place — of use for wave monitoring from vessels of opportunity, for fisheries and marine-mammal acoustics, and for any sonar that has to work without a straight line.

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Journal

The Innovation

DOI

10.1016/j.xinn.2026.101534

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

A smart fiber-optic towed hydrophone array for open-sea cruising observation

 

Rerouting ships to avoid killing whale sharks has little cost, study finds

University of Southampton

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Whale shark surfacing with ships in the background

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Credit: Martine Biological Association

Redirecting shipping traffic to avoid collisions with whale sharks has very little impact on fuel use, according to new research led by the University of Southampton.

Experts found that rerouting container ships and oil tankers around whale shark hotspots used at most just one per cent more fuel on longer voyages.

For shorter crossings, it was more fuel efficient to restrict vessels’ speed when passing through the critically endangered ocean giants’ gathering sites.

By demonstrating how biodiversity data can be incorporated into the navigation software shipping companies already use, the researchers hope to show that global shipping can support conservation efforts without significantly increasing costs.

“Our research shows how incorporating species-specific habitat data into voyage planning could mitigate the risk of ship strikes with negligible disruption to global trade,” says Dr Ryan Reisinger, Associate Professor in Marine Biology and Ecology from the University of Southampton, who led the research.

 “We demonstrated this with whale sharks, but it could be applied to other large sea creatures at risk of ship strikes, such as whales and dolphins.”

The research is published today [11 November] in Royal Society Open Science.

Ship strikes have been recorded for at least 75 marine species, but the true scale of the problem is unclear as collisions can go undetected or unreported. That is especially true for creatures which sink when killed, like whale sharks. They spend almost half their time in surface waters, and their population has more than halved in 75 years.

“We know this issue is likely to get worse if we don’t act now due to climate change potentially driving whale sharks into new habitats crossed by busy shipping lanes and shipping trade expected to increase,” says co-author on the paper Dr Freya Womersley from the Marine Biological Association.

Professor David Sims, another co-author from the Marine Biological Association and University of Southampton, added: “We know that if mitigation measures impose significant economic costs, it’s unlikely they will be adopted voluntarily by the industry and, in addition, may slow progress in developing and implementing global policy to protect marine megafauna at risk from ship collisions.”

The team incorporated maps of known whale shark aggregation sites into the state-of-the-art voyage optimisation software widely used in commercial shipping.

They then simulated eight crossings originating in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Mexico, which had been identified as amongst the most dangerous crossings for whale sharks, to see the impact of rerouting or slowing ships on fuel use.

They found rerouting to avoid whale shark aggregation sites entirely used at most one percent extra fuel for journeys of more than six days. Rerouted voyages lasting more than 12 days used even less (a 0.5% increase).

For shorter voyages, where changes in distance have a larger proportion effect, a speed reduction was the more fuel-efficient approach, again limiting additional fuel costs to less than one percent for slower vessels.

Researchers say the concept could be scaled up with improved data, dynamic forecasting, regulatory and incentive frameworks, and further integration with existing technology.  

Dr Reisinger concluded: “By embedding biodiversity into voyage optimisation, the maritime sector can contribute meaningfully to global efforts to reduce ship strikes, safeguard at-risk species and maintain the resilience of ocean ecosystems, all while sustaining the efficient movement of goods on which the global economy depends.”

Ends

Contact

Steve Williams, Media Manager, University of Southampton, press@soton.ac.uk or 023 8059 3212.

Notes for editors

1. Optimizing voyages for biodiversity: rerouting vessels around ocean giants can have minimal impact on shipping will be published in Royal Society Open Science at https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.260855
2. Interviews available
3. Images available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IolyQ1Rq6uTHPWGacA6J8Yvpe1zz0dJ5?usp=sharing Credit Marine Biological Association.

Additional information

The University of Southampton drives original thinking, turns knowledge into action and impact, and creates solutions to the world’s challenges. Our academics are leaders in their fields, forging links with high-profile international businesses and organisations, and inspiring a 24,000-strong community of exceptional students, from over 135 countries worldwide. Through our high-quality education, the University helps students on a journey of discovery to realise their potential and join our global network of over 300,000 alumni. www.southampton.ac.uk

www.southampton.ac.uk/news/contact-press-team.page

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Journal

Royal Society Open Science

DOI

10.1098/rsos.260855

Article Title

1) Optimizing voyages for biodiversity: rerouting vessels around ocean giants can have minimal impact on shipping

Article Publication Date

11-Nov-2026

COI Statement

A.J.S. is a non-executive board member of Theyr Ltd., and P.A.G. is employed by Theyr Ltd. R.R.R. is an editorial board member of Royal Society Open Science.

Satellite tagged whale shark

Surface feeding whale shark.

Large shipping container

Credit

Marine Biological Association

 

New study explains why we may feel the cold more as we age

Preclinical City of Hope research uncovers a surprising conversation among nerves, immune cells and heat-producing fat that could shed light on broader changes in metabolism

City of Hope

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Researchers from City of Hope have uncovered the biological reason for why we become more sensitive to cold as we get older. The study was published in Nature. Qiong "Annabel" Wang, Ph.D., is the corresponding author and an associate professor at City of Hope’s Arthur Riggs Diabetes & Metabolism Research Institute.

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Credit: Arthur Riggs Diabetes & Metabolism Research Institute / City of Hope

LOS ANGELES — Researchers from City of Hope®, one of the largest and most advanced cancer research and treatment organizations in the country, have uncovered the biological reason for why we become more sensitive to cold as we get older. 

Unlike white fat, which primarily stores energy, thermogenic fat is a special type of body fat that burns calories to produce heat and helps us stay warm. Thermogenic fat tends to become less active with age, which may explain why older people are more sensitive to cold. 

"Learning how the body controls this process may offer insights into obesity, type 2 diabetes and other metabolic disorders," said Qiong "Annabel" Wang, Ph.D., an associate professor at City of Hope’s Arthur Riggs Diabetes & Metabolism Research Institute and corresponding author of the new Nature study. 

Her research reveals how signals from nerves and immune cells control how much heat thermogenic fat produces by changing the balance between highly active and less active fat cells.  

Experiments in mice suggest that this system becomes less flexible with age, leaving thermogenic fat slower to respond when temperatures fall. 

Previously, City of Hope researchers found that thermogenic fat cells vary in how much heat they produce. Some have high levels of UCP1, a protein that generates heat, while others have less UCP1 and remain less active. In this study, City of Hope researchers observed a similar mix in human thermogenic fat samples, although they conducted most of our experiments in mice. 

How the Body Turns Up the Heat 

This mix of thermogenic fat cells may give the body a built-in way to adjust to changing temperatures. When more warmth is needed, signals from the nervous and immune systems prompt less-active cells to increase heat production. When the need passes, the system can dial that activity back. 

In older mice, however, this response became sluggish. Their thermogenic fat could still increase heat production, but it took longer. As a result, the animals had more difficulty maintaining their body temperature during cold exposure. 

The researchers were able to restore some heat production in older mice by blocking one part of the biological pathway behind this slowdown. The treated animals produced more heat and burned more energy.  

The drug used in the experiment, mifepristone, affects many parts of the body, so it is not a treatment for age-related cold sensitivity. But the results suggest that the decline in thermogenic fat activity could be reversed. 

"That possibility matters for more than staying warm," Qiong said. "Thermogenic fat also burns glucose and fat, and its activity tends to decline with age. If scientists can find a safe, precise way to restore that activity, this foundational research could eventually deepen our understanding of age-related metabolic problems, including obesity and type 2 diabetes." 

# # # 

The study “Bistable regulation of adipocyte heterogeneity governs thermogenesis” was supported by the City of Hope startup and salary-saving funds, the Caltech-City of Hope Biomedical Research Initiative Grant and the National Institutes of Health (P30CA033572). 

The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. 

About City of Hope 
City of Hope's mission is to make hope a reality for all touched by cancer and diabetes. Founded in 1913, City of Hope has grown into one of the largest and most advanced cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States, and one of the leading research centers for diabetes and other life-threatening illnesses. City of Hope research has been the basis for numerous breakthrough cancer medicines, as well as human synthetic insulin and monoclonal antibodies. With an independent, National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center that is ranked among the nation’s top cancer centers by U.S. News & World Report at its core, City of Hope’s uniquely integrated model spans cancer care, research and development, academics and training, and a broad philanthropy program that powers its work. City of Hope’s growing national system includes its Los Angeles campus, Orange County, California, campus, a network of clinical care locations across Southern California and cancer treatment centers and outpatient facilities in the Atlanta, Chicago and Phoenix areas. City of Hope’s affiliated group of organizations includes Translational Genomics Research Institute and AccessHopeTM. For more information about City of Hope, follow us on Facebook, X, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn. 

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Journal

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-026-11308-7

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Bistable regulation of adipocyte heterogeneity governs thermogenesis

Article Publication Date

11-Nov-2026

 

Experts urge caution over drug company campaigns to destigmatize obesity

Destigmatizing obesity is the right thing to do, but commercial interests require careful scrutiny

BMJ Group

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We should be wary of campaigns by pharmaceutical companies to destigmatise obesity, say experts in The BMJ today.

Michael Viggars and colleagues argue that, while destigmatising obesity is the right thing to do, there is a risk that companies profiting from obesity treatment come to influence public conversation and national policy.

They point to Eli Lilly’s UK “Obesity Is a Disease” campaign, which explains that obesity is a complex disease rather than a failure of willpower, that the body can resist weight loss, and that people who have struggled for years deserve compassion, not blame.

Adverts invite people to check their body mass index, answer a few questions, and prepare for a conversation with a doctor, nurse, or pharmacist. Although drugs are not mentioned, the campaign is by a pharmaceutical company whose drug tirzepatide is now a principal treatment for obesity.

Almost everything the campaign says about stigma is true, note the authors. The framing is at once scientifically defensible and commercially useful, and that convergence, they say, is exactly what makes it harder to criticise.

“This is what the commercial determinants of health look like in their subtlest form,” they argue. “We spot commercial influence far less readily when it arrives wrapped in the language of compassion and destigmatisation that public health has spent years cultivating.”

The risk is not mainly that more people will be prescribed weight loss drugs; for eligible patients that is a clear benefit, they write. The risk is that it endorses a clinical first approach to obesity that narrows the field of action.

If obesity is understood primarily as a disease awaiting clinical intervention, responsibility and resources may drift away from its upstream causes including poor urban planning, the food environment, deprivation, and marketing, they explain. “Obesity treatment and prevention may be quietly recast as only a personal, medical matter rather than a collective responsibility.”

Addressing this requires us to balance two perspectives: that destigmatising obesity is the right thing to do and that we should be wary of the vested interest pharmaceutical companies have in tackling that stigma, they write.

“Regulators should be willing to test the principles and identify the limits of the code by reference to campaigns like this one by a manufacturer, not only in relation to the pharmacies, clinics or influencers selling or promoting the drugs,” they conclude.

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Journal

The BMJ

DOI

10.1136/bmj-2026-101360

Method of Research

Commentary/editorial

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

We should be wary of campaigns by pharmaceutical companies to destigmatise obesity

Article Publication Date

11-Nov-2026