Deep-sea CIOB sediment, nodule and 0-5000metre water column 18S metabarcoding

In the world oceans, such studies have showed that benthic communities that were different from the surrounding regular deepsea floor inhabited these habitats. However, the extent to which these special habitats contribute to the overall deepsea biodiversity has never been investigated, since studies on the biodiversity of particular deep-sea habitats were often restricted to comparisons between specific habitats and their background environments on a local or occasionally regional scale. Along with the biodiversity, studying the diversity ecosystem function relationship in the deep sea is of primary importance in the face of biodiversity loss and for our understanding of how the deepsea functions. Ecosystem functioning involves several processes, which can be summarized as production, consumption and transfer of organic matter to higher trophic levels, organic matter decomposition, and nutrient regeneration. Particularly the Central Indian Ocean Basin which is important area in prospective of mining for polymetallic nodules is important in terms of the functional aspects of existing fauna. This study also provides the first comprehensive metabarcoding-based characterization of zooplankton diversity in the CIOB and serves as a critical reference point for assessing future ecological impacts from deep-sea mining.