The deep seafloor is teeming with life, most of which remains poorly known to science. It also constitutes an important reserve of natural resources, particularly minerals, that mining companies will start harvesting in the next few years (Nat Rev Earth Environ, 1, 2020, 158). In this context, broad biodiversity assessments of deep‐sea ecosystems are urgently needed to establish a baseline prior to mining. However, significant gaps in our taxonomic knowledge and the high cost of sampling in the deep sea limit the effectiveness of conventional morphology‐based surveys. In this issue of Molecular Ecology, Laroche et al. (Mol Ecol, 2020) capitalize on high throughput molecular methods to conduct one of the most detailed and rigorous surveys of the composition and biogeography of deep‐seafloor metazoan communities to date. The authors show that deep seamounts in the Clarion Clipperton Zone are inhabited by rich metazoan communities that are distinct from those of the surrounding abyssal plains. These results have important conservation implications: if communities on deep seamounts were to persist after large‐scale industrial mining operations on the surrounding plains, the seamounts would not serve as appropriate reservoirs to repopulate impacted areas.

中文翻译：

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对于独特的动物区系来说，海底采矿的价格可能很高

深层的海底充满了生命，其中大多数对科学仍然知之甚少。它还构成了重要的自然资源，特别是矿产的重要储备，矿业公司将在未来几年开始收获（Nat Rev Earth Environ，1，2020，158）。在这种情况下，迫切需要对深海生态系统进行广泛的生物多样性评估，以在开采前确定基准。但是，我们在分类学知识上的巨大差距以及深海采样的高昂成本限制了传统基于形态学的调查的有效性。在本期《分子生态学》中，Laroche等。（Mol Ecol，2020）利用高通量分子方法对迄今为止的深海后生动物群落的组成和生物地理学进行了最详细，最严格的调查之一。这组作者表明，克拉里昂克利珀顿区深海山被丰富的后生动物群落居住，而这些动物不同于周围的深海平原。这些结果具有重要的保护意义：如果深海山上的社区在周边平原上进行大规模工业开采之后仍然存在，那么该海山将不会成为重新安置受灾地区的合适水库。