The deep sea covers approximately 60% of our planet and, until just a few decades ago, was considered to be stable on multi-decadal time scales. This view has changed radically following technological advances that fostered the discovery of the arrival of pulses of fresh phytoplankton at the abyssal seafloor, active mudflows at cold seepsand migrating seepage sites along mid- ocean ridges. However, how these naturaldisturbance events affect the functioning of this vast ecosystem still remains largely unknown. Over the next decades, the deep sea will be increasingly impacted by anthropogenic disturbances due to climate change, deep-sea fisheries, oil and gas exploitation and deep-sea mining. The latter will, for example, disturb extensive areas of seabed through material and habitat removal and generate near-bottom and mid-water sediment plumes. An approach in which natural dynamics and anthropogenic impacts are viewed as perturbation events will not only generate a better understanding of this unique ecosystem, but will also allow estimates of ecosystem resilience and recovery rates, which are sorely needed for environmental impact studies. In this session, we welcome novel experimental, empirical and modeling studies that shed new light on the impact and dynamics of natural and anthropogenic disturbances on the deep sea.