News Oceans

Deep-sea mining might feed plankton a diet of junk food

Sediment plumes could trick plankton into eating empty calories

Ocean zooplankton, shown in a photo, could accidentally eat nutrient-poor food from deep-sea mining waste.

Ocean zooplankton (shown) may accidentally munch on nutrient-poor sediment particles in waste plumes from deep-sea mining.

Matt Wilson and Jay Clark/AFSC/NMFS/NOAA

By Carolyn Gramling

Mining the seafloor for valuable metals could send dangerous ripples through ocean food webs.

Tiny floating plankton, the base of the food web, can accidentally ingest particles of sediment kicked up by deep-sea mining operations — forgoing more nutritious food of similar size, researchers report November 6 in Nature Communications.