Delayed Anthropocene in the deep-sea biosphere: a last paradise soon lost?

The deep sea remains a last paradise and the place of minimal human impacts compared with other ecosystems. However, this pristine status is rapidly changing, and deep-sea human impacts have seldom been discussed in a broad context that draws comparisons with those in other ecosystems. Here, we recap the history of human-induced ecological degradation in deep-sea, shallow-marine and terrestrial ecosystems to place the deep-sea situation in a broad context. Anthropogenic terrestrial ecosystem degradation started tens of thousands of years ago. Shallow-marine ecosystem change followed that of terrestrial degradation but also began several millennia ago. More substantial degradation commenced from the time of civilization, European colonization and industrialization. However, deep-sea ecological degradation started much later. In the deep sea, most major human impacts began much later than the industrial revolution, e.g. deep-sea trawling from the 1950s. Major near-future concerns include deep seabed mining and marine carbon dioxide removal. Deep-sea Anthropocene biosphere degradation is delayed in this regard, and the ecological integrity of the deep sea remains much better than in other 'paradises' such as tropical rain forests and coral reefs that are already degraded substantially. The deep sea could soon be similarly degraded if large-scale implementation of mining and/or marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) technologies commences. This article is part of the theme issue 'The biosphere in the Anthropocene'.