Rapid preliminary assessment of seabed biodiversity for the marine and coastal mining industries

A protocol for rapid preliminary assessment of seabed biodiversity has been developed for the mining industry, and applied to the tailings placement a rea of the recently closed (1995) Island Copper Mine, Canada. The protocol succeeded in providing, during the time of the field work, quantitative dat a on the number of apparent species present in a grab sample (0.05/m(2)) wa shed through a #30 mesh scr een (approx 0.5 mm) the total number of organis ms/m(2) collected and the number of individuals of the most abundant specie s (five species at each sampling station). Numerical criteria for coding an d interpreting biodiversity levels as Impoverished, Low, Moderate, or High were developed for the site. The system was tested against the conventional assessment protocol (identification to species) used by the mine since 197 0. It was necessary to process three replicate samples las opposed to one o nly, or a subsample) for the interpretation of biodiversity level to be con sistent between rapid and conventional protocols. Both protocols showed dur ing the surveys that, 9 months after mine closure, the biodiveristy of tail ings-affected areas was in successional stages with characterizing opportun istic species. Biodiversity was at levels ranked as Low, Moderate, or High. The rapid assessment protocol can provide this type of information during a seabed biodiversity survey, with formal reporting possible within a few d ays as opposed to the conventional wait of many months. Results can be veri fied by a conventional full species-identification analysis.