Biodiversity Impacts from Salinity Increase in a Coastal Wetland

Abstract

A Life Cycle Impact Assessment method was developed to evaluate the environmental impact associated with salinity on biodiversity in a Spanish coastal wetland. The developed characterization factor consists of a fate and an effect factor and equals 3.16 × 10(-1) ± 1.84 × 10(-1) PAF · m(3) · yr · m(-3) (PAF: Potentially Affected Fraction of species) indicating a "potential loss of 0.32 m(3) ecosystem" for a water consumption rate of 1 m(3) · yr(-1). As a result of groundwater consumption with a rate of 1 m(3) · yr(-1), the PAF in the lost cubic meter of ecosystem equals 0.05, which has been proposed as the maximum tolerable effect to keep the ecosystem intact. The fate factor was calculated from seasonal water balances of the wetland Albufera de Adra. The effect factor was obtained from the fitted curve of the potentially affected fraction of native wetland species due to salinity and can be applied to other wetlands with similar species composition. In order to test the applicability of the characterization factor, an assessment of water consumption of greenhouse crops in the area was conducted as a case study. Results converted into ecosystem quality damage using the ReCiPe method were compared to other categories. While tomatoes are responsible for up to 30% of the impact of increased salinity due to water consumption on ecosystem quality in the studied area, melons have the largest impact per tonne produced.

Improvement of Agricultural Life Cycle Assessment Studies through Spatial Differentiation and New Impact Categories: Case Study on Greenhouse Tomato Production

“…35 This value is similar to the order of magnitude of terrestrial acidification (1.06 × 10 −06 species·yr per ha) and terrestrial ecotoxicity (8.37 × 10 −07 species·yr per ha) estimated using the ReCiPe method (Supporting Information, Table S10) and clearly lower than the score for damage caused to inland wetlands.…”

“…Other weighting systems (e.g., based on species richness per taxon and ecological function) may be developed in the future. 35 Regarding land-use impact categories, the use of absolute units of potentially lost nonendemic or regional species represents an improvement over the old relative PDF. Selecting relative or absolute impacts is based on a value choice: choosing relative impacts gives equal weight to ecosystems, whereas absolute impacts stress the ecological function of those ecosystems.…”

Seawater intrusion via surface water vs. deep shoreline salt-wedge: A case history from the Pisa coastal plain (Italy)

“…In addition to degrading the quality of groundwater and restricting the agricultural use of the land, increased salinity reduces the diversity of ecosystems (Amores et al, 2013) and leads to the development of halophilic species (Williams, 1987). Sea water contains approximately 35,000 mg/L of dissolved solids, which include about 20,000 mg/L of chloride.…”

Salinity Tolerance in Fraxinus angustifolia Vahl.: Seed Emergence in Field and Germination Trials

“…Consequently, undertaking practice and policy actions to prevent wetland degradation and loss remains a focus of international processes, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Aichi Targets and the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In coastal floodplains, human pressure, altered water flows, contaminants from internal urban and agricultural lands, and increased soil salinity [24][25][26] were particularly relevant, and science-based management options should be urgent [27] to face adverse climate-related impacts exacerbated by increasing human-induced pressures [28][29][30].F. angustifolia coastal alluvial forests were mainly judged under unfavorable (habitat 91F0) or inadeguate (habitat 91E0 * ) states, following the 2007-2012 EU Habitat Directive Art.…”