title: Towards a meaningful assessment of marine ecological impacts in life cycle assessment (LCA).
abstract: Human demands on marine resources and space are currently unprecedented and concerns are rising over observed declines in marine biodiversity. A quantitative understanding of the impact of industrial activities on the marine environment is thus essential. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a widely applied method for quantifying the environmental impact of products and processes. LCA was originally developed to assess the impacts of land-based industries on mainly terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. As such, impact indicators for major drivers of marine biodiversity loss are currently lacking. We review quantitative approaches for cause-effect assessment of seven major drivers of marine biodiversity loss: climate change, ocean acidification, eutrophication-induced hypoxia, seabed damage, overexploitation of biotic resources, invasive species and marine plastic debris. Our review shows that impact indicators can be developed for all identified drivers, albeit at different levels of coverage of cause-effect pathways and variable levels of uncertainty and spatial coverage. Modeling approaches to predict the spatial distribution and intensity of human-driven interventions in the marine environment are relatively well-established and can be employed to develop spatially-explicit LCA fate factors. Modeling approaches to quantify the effects of these interventions on marine biodiversity are less well-developed. We highlight specific research challenges to facilitate a coherent incorporation of marine biodiversity loss in LCA, thereby making LCA a more comprehensive and robust environmental impact assessment tool. Research challenges of particular importance include i) incorporation of the non-linear behavior of global circulation models (GCMs) within an LCA framework and ii) improving spatial differentiation, especially the representation of coastal regions in GCMs and ocean-carbon cycle models.
authors.affiliation: Industrial Ecology Programme, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Sem Sælands vei 7, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway. Electronic address: john.s.woods@ntnu.no.
authors.forename: John S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Woods
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health Sciences (EHS), School of Public Health, University of Michigan, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029, USA.
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Veltman
authors.affiliation: Radboud University Nijmegen, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Department of Environmental Science, P.O. Box 9010, NL-6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Mark A J
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Huijbregts
authors.affiliation: Industrial Ecology Programme, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Sem Sælands vei 7, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Verones
authors.affiliation: Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, 195 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511, USA.
authors.forename: Edgar G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Hertwich
mesh_terms: D000220:Adaptation, Biological; D059001:Aquatic Organisms / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000502:physiology; D044822:Biodiversity; D057231:Climate Change; D017753:Ecosystem; D006801:Humans; D008018:Life Cycle Stages; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D014876:Water Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis
keywords: Ecosystem quality; Human interventions; Impact pathways; Life cycle assessment; Marine biodiversity; Pollution