Pacific Nodules Shelter Thousands of Tiny Organisms
A new study finds the iron and manganese lumps on the deep seafloor host dense animal communities that deep-sea mining would destroy.
Updated on Nov. 11, 2026 in Environmental
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Researchers report in Scientific Reports that polymetallic nodules in the Pacific Ocean serve as habitats for tiny organisms. The study analyzed 244 nodules and found 4,139 individual animals.
Why it matters
Polymetallic nodules are a target for industrial deep-sea mining because of their nickel, cobalt and copper content. Because nodules take millions of years to form, extraction would permanently destroy the habitat these organisms depend on.
The study examined 244 nodules from depths of 4,000 to 6,000 meters, finding 4,139 animals, or 17 per nodule on average, with nematodes at about 10% and copepods at about 25% of sediment levels. Whether these communities could survive relocation or whether their loss would drive species extinction remains unresolved.
The players
University of Bremen
A German public research university whose researchers led the study of nodule-dwelling organisms.
Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research
A Dutch marine research institute that co-led the study with researchers from the University of Bremen.
The details
Researchers collected samples in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone using box corers and diving robots, then dissected the nodules in the laboratory to extract organisms from crevices. Nodule communities were similar across distances up to 1,000 km but differed from the animals living in surrounding sediment.
Big Picture
The findings add biological evidence to the debate over commercial extraction of polymetallic nodules in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, where mining proposals target the same deposits that host these communities. Nodules grow only a few millimeters per million years, so the habitat could not be restored on any human timescale.
Nodules hold materials used in batteries and electronics, so the study bears on the trade-off between mineral supply and seabed habitat. Any decision to mine these fields would remove the habitat before its ecological role could be fully measured.
The takeaway
Protecting seabed habitats requires understanding what lives there before extraction begins. Policymakers weighing deep-sea mining should account for communities that the current research shows depend on these slow-forming deposits.
Further reading
For related coverage, see the Environmental section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Phys.
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