Abstract by author:
According to Barnes these benthos are valued seabed organisms because both epifauna (organisms that are sessile and anchor onto hard substrates such as bryozoans, ascidians, sponges, jellyfish, corals and sea anemones) and infauna (those that burrow in soft sediment such as mantis shrimps and crabs) are extremely important biological components of the deep-sea ecosystem which colonise pelagic larvae, clean the water through filtration, constitute part of the marine food chain, etc. From an ecological perspective, in order to gain an appreciation of the relationship between organisms and the environment it is crucial to look at the benthic animals and their habitat and substrate types through the analysis of transect data. This is based on the hypothesis that "The settlement of the tailing plume as an indirect disturbance, will have an effect on the surrounding epifaunal communities". This study of the benthos with more emphasis on epifauna is a descriptive approach which include physical parameters such as distance to the nearest mining site by gradient
