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„Deep Life Paper“ Award for Tobias Vonnahme

„Deep Life Paper“ Award for Tobias Vonnahme

Mar 17, 2021

We congratulate Tobias Vonnahme and his fellow authors to the IC-DLI „Deep Life Paper“ Award 2020!

Tobias Vonnahme receives the award from the International Center for Deep Life Investigation for his paper “Effects of a deep-sea mining experiment on seafloor microbial communities and functions after 26 years”, which was published in Science Advances in April 2020. The paper was now selected as one of the five most recommended papers related with Deep life research published on 2020 “for demonstrating the potential long-term impacts of deep-sea mining on sediment microbial communities and their biological functions, thus calling for mining practices and standards that better balance the use and conservation of natural resources”, states the Awards Committee of IC-DLI. Vonnahme will present his research in an online talk on the coming-soon IC-DLI webinar, designed to feature excellent Deep Life studies. “We hope these awards will recognize scholarly contributions, strengthen academic communication, and encourage and foster the next-generation of Deep Life researchers,“ the Awards Committee further states.

Tobias Vonnahme, who is currently employed at the Arctic University of Norway in Tromsö, collected the data presented in the now award-winning publication during his master's thesis at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology. In this publication he and his collleagues from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, the MARUM Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen, GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel and Senckenberg am Meer revealed that deep-sea mining-related disturbances have a long-term impact on the natural ecosystem functions and microbial communities at the seafloor. The paper was published as part of the BMBF-funded project “MiningImpact”.

Learn more about the award-winning paper

Sampling at a 6-year-old plough track. (Source: ROV-Team/GEOMAR)

Apr 29, 2020

Simulated deep-sea mining affects ecosystem functions at the seafloor

Deep-sea mining-related disturbances have a long-term impact on the natural ecosystem functions and microbial communities at the seafloor.

Deep-sea mining could provide a way to address the increasing need of rare metals. However, its environmental impact is only partially known. In ad...

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