Valerio Barbarossa

Calls to ban deep-sea mining aim to protect poorly known ocean ecosystems, but a global modelling study shows that a moratorium could intensify nickel extraction in some of the Earth’s most biodiverse tropical regions.

1 Introduction While mining sites account for less than 1% of the Earth's land surface (Maus et al. 2022), mining activities pose disproportionate threats to biodiversity (Sonter et al. 2020). Many mining sites are located in biodiversity-rich areas, exposing wildlife to habitat loss and degradation while threatening vulnerable ecosystems (Durán et al. 2013; Luckeneder et al. 2021). These threats can extend far beyond mining sites (Sonter et al. 2018; Junker et al.

1 Introduction Wetlands are biodiversity hotspots that provide essential ecosystem services, such as flood protection, carbon sequestration, and storage (Janse et al. 2019; Zedler and Kercher 2005). Approximately 5%–8% of the global land surface is categorized as wetlands, which comprise 20%–30% of the world's carbon pool (Salimi et al. 2021). However, wetlands are disproportionately threatened due to increasing demands for resources.