C-C지역 대한민국 심해저자원개발광구에서의 저층환경 충격시험지역 선정연구

Abstract

In order to better predict and manage the benthic disturbance by the deep seabed manganese nodules mining, we need to conduct the benthic disturbance experiment at the selected area which have a similar environmental condition as the preservation reference area. Therefore, we have performed the environmental baseline studies from 2003 not only to select the benthic environmental impact testing site but also to detect any environmental changes before and after mining activity. Since then, a large dataset of various parameters ranging from physical (e.g. temperature, salinity, current, weather), chemical (e.g. dissolved oxygen, nutrients, dissolved and particulate organic carbon), biological (e.g. bacteria, plankton, benthos), geological (e.g. Mn-nodule abundance, sediment shear strength) and others (e.g. bathymetric profile and slope, mass flux) have been accumulated. Using these dataset, descriptive statistics and cross-correlation were performed to select the benthic environmental impact testing site. Outcome of this analysis suggests that the potential benthic impact testing site would be a rectangular-shape area(10 km × 10 km) and located at 10°27′~10°33′N, 131°53′~131°58′W, which is latitudinally same to the preservation reference area.