In this edition of the ECOP Wednesdays event series, hosted by the EMB Young Ambassadors and the EMB Secretariat for the EMB ECOP network, Jesse van der Grint will speak about "Estimating the ecosystem impacts of deep-sea mining".
Jesse van der Grient is a biological oceanographer and ecosystem scientist whose research focuses on understanding how marine ecosystems respond to multiple human pressures. Her work spans from coastal to deep-sea ecosystems and combines empirical observations with quantitative approaches, to understand impacts across ecological scales. She has worked extensively on the potential environmental impacts of deep-sea mining, including impacts on midwater ecosystems, interactions with fisheries, and approaches for assessing cumulative impacts. Jesse is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) and is also active at the science–policy interface through the Deep-Ocean Stewardship Initiative (DOSI) as one of the co-leads of the Minerals Working Group.
Deep-sea mining is an emerging industry receiving increasing attention in global discussions around the supply of critical minerals. Mineral resources are currently being explored in national and international waters, although no commercial exploitation has begun yet. Exploiting these resources will inevitably result in environmental pressures, with ecological impacts potentially extending beyond the immediate mining footprint. Considerable uncertainty remains around the magnitude, spatial extent and persistence of these effects, and how impacts on individual organisms and communities translate into wider ecosystem consequences. This talk will explore how we can estimate the ecosystem impacts of deep-sea mining, from communities to ecosystem impacts, and how this broader understanding can support ecosystem-based management, including consideration of cumulative impacts and interactions with other ocean uses such as fisheries.
You can register for the webinar here.