logo

Biodiversity and trade: mitigating the impacts of non-food biomass global supply chains

Biodiversity and trade: mitigating the impacts of non-food biomass global supply chains

linkedin

WP2 : Quantify impacts on ecosystem functions

WP2 : Impacts on ecosystem
WP2 : Impacts on ecosystem
picture of marine plastic

Objective of Work Package : We will estimate impacts on ecosystem functions through quantifying the impacts on functional diversity and ecosystems services for environmental pressures both on land and at sea. Regarding functional diversity, we will develop global, regionalized impact assessment methods for climate change impacts on terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems, eutrophication impacts on freshwater and marine ecosystems, and overfishing impacts on marine biodiversity. This complements ongoing efforts of ETH and ULEI for land use impacts on terrestrial ecosystems. Regarding ecosystem services, the focus will be on regulating services (pest control, pollination, soil erosion protection and carbon sequestration).

Methodology : We will develop impact assessment methods in line with those used in life cycle assessments and which can also be linked to MRIO analysis. It requires statistical, scenario, and spatial analyses. Possible methods to draw from for such assessments are natural experiments, the ecological niche concept together with the simulation of scenarios, and the fitting of statistical relationships between functional diversity and environmental pressures similar to species-sensitivity distributions. Functional diversity will be measured as functional richness, evenness, and divergence, and possibly partly as functional rarity. For ecosystem services, we will extend the GLOBIO-ES model simulating ecosystem service supply to also assess impacts. This will be done by comparing the supply to a baseline.

Output : We will deliver global, regionalized characterization factors that link environmental pressures to impacts on functional diversity and ecosystem services. These characterization factors will subsequently be used to assess the impacts of trade (WP3) and transformative change scenarios (WP4) globally and in case studies and compare them with impacts on species diversity (WP1).

Our Partners working on WP2
picture:logo EU and ERC

Co-funded by the European Union and the Swiss Confederation. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Swiss Confederation. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority or the Swiss Confederation can be held responsible for them.

Bamboo © 2023

picture:logo EU and ERC
picture:logo EU and ERC

Co-funded by the European Union and the Swiss Confederation. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Swiss Confederation. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority or the Swiss Confederation can be held responsible for them.

Bamboo © 2023
webmaster: Industrial Ecology Digital Lab

picture:logo Industrial ecology programme