Description: Highlights • Deep-sea mineral exploration and exploitation licenses have been issued recently. • Mining will modify the abiotic and biotic environment. • At directly mined sites, species are removed and cannot resist disturbance. • Recovery is highly variable in distinct ecosystems and among benthic taxa. • Community changes may persist over geological time-scales at directly mined sites. Abstract With increasing demand for mineral resources, extraction of polymetallic sulphides at hydrothermal vents, cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts at seamounts, and polymetallic nodules on abyssal plains may be imminent. Here, we shortly introduce ecosystem characteristics of mining areas, report on recent mining developments, and identify potential stress and disturbances created by mining. We analyze species’ potential resistance to future mining and perform meta-analyses on population density and diversity recovery after disturbances most similar to mining: volcanic eruptions at vents, fisheries on seamounts, and experiments that mimic nodule mining on abyssal plains. We report wide variation in recovery rates among taxa, size, and mobility of fauna. While densities and diversities of some taxa can recover to or even exceed pre-disturbance levels, community composition remains affected after decades. The loss of hard substrata or alteration of substrata composition may cause substantial community shifts that persist over geological timescales at mined sites.

Description: Highlights • A stack of four BSRs were identified in levee deposits of the Danube deep-sea fan. • The multiple BSRs are not caused by overpressure compartments. • The multiple BSRs reflect stages of stable sealevel lowstands during glacial times. • Gas underneath the previous GHSZ does not start to migrate for thousands of years. Abstract High-resolution 2D seismic data reveal the character and distribution of up to four stacked bottom simulating reflectors (BSR) within the channel-levee systems of the Danube deep-sea fan. The theoretical base of the gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ) calculated from regional geothermal gradients and salinity data is in agreement with the shallowest BSR. For the deeper BSRs, BSR formation due to overpressure compartments can be excluded because the necessary gas column would exceed the vertical distance between two overlying BSRs. We show instead that the deeper BSRs are likely paleo BSRs caused by a change in pressure and temperature conditions during different limnic phases of the Black Sea. This is supported by the observation that the BSRs correspond to paleo seafloor horizons located in a layer between a buried channel-levee system and the levee deposits of the Danube channel. The good match of the observed BSRs and the BSRs predicted from deposition of these sediment layers indicates that the multiple BSRs reflect stages of stable sealevel lowstands possibly during glacial times. The observation of sharp BSRs several 10,000 of years but possibly up to 300,000 yr after they have left the GHSZ demonstrates that either hydrate dissociation does not take place within this time frame or that only small amounts of gas are released that can be transported by diffusion. The gas underneath the previous GHSZ does not start to migrate for several thousands of years.

Description: Highlights • High abundance of active anaerobic methanotrophs in sediments of the blowout crater suggests adaptation to methane seepage within at most two decades. • Fast exchange processes in permeable surface sediments prevent sulfate depletion and probably methane-derived carbonate precipitation. • Methane seepage impacts isotopic and assemblage composition of benthic foraminifera. Abstract Methane emissions from marine sediments are partly controlled by microbial anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM). AOM provides a long-term sink for carbon through precipitation of methane-derived authigenic carbonates (MDAC). Estimates on the adaptation time of this benthic methane filter as well as on the establishment of related processes and communities after an onset of methane seepage are rare. In the North Sea, considerable amounts of methane have been released since 20 years from a man-made gas blowout offering an ideal natural laboratory to study the effects of methane seepage on initially “pristine” sediment. Sediment cores were taken from the blowout crater and a reference site (50 m distance) in 2011 and 2012, respectively, to investigate porewater chemistry, the AOM community and activity, the presence of authigenic carbonates, and benthic foraminiferal assemblages. Potential AOM activity (up to 3060 nmol cm−3 sediment d−1 or 375 mmol m−2 d−1) was detected only in the blowout crater up to the maximum sampling depth of 18 cm. CARD-FISH analyzes suggest that monospecific ANME-2 aggregates were the only type of AOM organisms present, showing densities (up to 2.2*107 aggregates cm−3) similar to established methane seeps. No evidence for recent MDAC formation was found using stable isotope analyzes (δ13C and δ18O). In contrast, the carbon isotopic signature of methane was recorded by the epibenthic foraminifer Cibicides lobatulus (δ13C −0.66‰). Surprisingly, the foraminiferal assemblage in the blowout crater was dominated by Cibicides and other species commonly found in the Norwegian Channel and fjords, indicating that these organisms have responded sensitively to the specific environmental conditions at the blowout. The high activity and abundance of AOM organisms only at the blowout site suggests adaptation to a strong increase in methane flux in the order of at most two decades. High gas discharge dynamics in permeable surface sediments facilitate fast sulfate replenishing and stimulation of AOM. The accompanied prevention of total alkalinity build-up in the porewater thereby appears to inhibit the formation of substantial methane-derived authigenic carbonate at least within the given time window.

Description: As a result of extensive hydrocarbon exploration, the North Sea hosts several thousand abandoned wells; many believed to be leaking methane. However, how much of this greenhouse gas is emitted into the water column and ultimately reaches the atmosphere is not known. Here, we investigate three abandoned wells at 81-93m water depth in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, all of which show gas seepage into the bottom water. The isotopic signature of the emanating gas points towards a biogenic origin and hence to gas pockets in the sedimentary overburden above the gas reservoirs that the wells were drilled into. Video-analysis of the seeping gas bubbles and direct gas flow measurements resolved initial bubble sizes ranging between 3.2 and 7.4mm in diameter with a total seabed gas flow between 1 and 19 tons of CH4 per year per well. Estimated total annual seabed emissions from all three wells of ~24 tons are similar to the natural seepage rates at Tommeliten, suggesting that leaky abandoned wells represent a significant source of methane into North Sea bottom waters. However, the bubble-driven direct methane transport into the atmosphere was found to be negligible (〈2%) due to the small bubble sizes and the water depth at which they are released.