Time Horizon Dependent Characterization Factors for Acidification in Life-Cycle Assessment Based on Forest Plant Species Occurrence in Europe

Zelm, Rosalie van; Huijbregts, Mark A. J.; Jaarsveld, Hans A. van; Reinds, G.J.; Zwart, Dick de; Struijs, Jeroen N.; Meent, Dik van de

doi:10.1021/es061433q

Cited by 65 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Concentration-response relationships, also known as Species Sensitivity Distributions (SSDs) have been practically used for the risk assessment of toxic chemicals in the freshwater environment since the 80-ties of the last century (Posthuma et al, 2002;De Vries et al, 2008), but also for assessing the impacts of physical factors like suspended clays, sediment burial, and grain size change in the marine environment , and for analysing the probable impacts of acid deposition on European forests (Van Zelm et al, 2006). A quantitative description of the concentration-response relationship between ambient phosphorus concentrations and the occurrence of species for freshwater systems is however, still lacking.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Field sensitivity distribution of macroinvertebrates for phosphorus in inland waters

Struijs

Zwart

Posthuma

et al. 2010

Integr Envir Assess & Manag

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The magnitude of ecological damage caused by elevated phosphorus concentrations in Dutch inland waters was evaluated and expressed as the fraction of disappeared genera. We used national abundance data stored in the Limnodata Neerlandica from 1980 until 2005. We derived the presence or absence in the concentration range between 0.001 and 40 mg/l total phosphorus for 867 macro-invertebrate genera. At concentrations above 0.1 mg/l, which is considered a signal of nutrient enrichment of freshwater, the fraction of disappeared macroinvertebrate genera (DF) can be written as a logistic function of the phosphorus concentration (CP), i.e. DF = 1/(1 + 4.07-CP-111). This implies that half of the macro-invertebrate genera that potentially occur in freshwater in the Netherlands would disappear at a phosphorus concentration of 3.5 mg/l. This field-based impact expression resembles the cumulative sensitivity distribution function for a toxic substance, based on the Species Sensitivity Distribution (SSD) concept and artificial exposure test data. While the SSD for a compound relies on laboratory sensitivity data for a small number of species, the fraction of disappeared macro-invertebrate genera is here derived from field observations of many macroinvertebrate genera at numerous phosphorus concentration intervals. By applying the new damage function to measured phosphorus concentrations over the period in the rivers Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt, we found that the observed change in phosphorus concentrations would imply a loss of macro-invertebrates of 20-30 % initially to 5-10 % in 2005. The cumulative sensitivity distribution function for phosphorus from national freshwater monitoring data can be applied in various environmental screening systems such as multi-stress impact assessment of surface waters and in life cycle impact assessment of products.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Field sensitivity distribution of macroinvertebrates for phosphorus in inland waters

Struijs

Zwart

Posthuma

et al. 2010

Integr Envir Assess & Manag

Self Cite

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“…(1) Based on environmental factors, an accounting model was applied to 12 types of environment impacts, the basis of LCIA was shown in Table 3 [35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46]; (2) A model of the water footprint (WF) was applied in the WF accounting, including blue WF, green WF and grey WF [47,48]; (3) An accounting model of land use (LU) was used to calculate the environmental impact of LU, including land occupation and land conversion [49]. …”

Section: (4) End Of Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

The Environmental Burdens of Lead-Acid Batteries in China: Insights from an Integrated Material Flow Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment of Lead

Chen

Lian

et al. 2017

Energies

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Lead-acid batteries (LABs), a widely used energy storage equipment in cars and electric vehicles, are becoming serious problems due to their high environmental impact. In this study, an integrated method, combining material flow analysis with life cycle assessment, was developed to analyze the environmental emissions and burdens of lead in LABs. The environmental burdens from other materials in LABs were not included. The results indicated that the amount of primary lead used in LABs accounted for 77% of the total lead production in 2014 in China. The amount of discharged lead into the environment was 8.54 × 10 5 tonnes, which was mainly from raw material extraction (57.2%). The largest environmental burden was from the raw materials extraction and processing, which accounted for 81.7% of the total environmental burdens. The environmental burdens of the environmental toxicity potential, human toxicity potential-cancer, human toxicity potential-non-cancer, water footprint and land use accounted for more than 90% at this stage. Moreover, the environmental burdens from primary lead was much more serious than regenerated lead. On the basis of the results, main practical measures and policies were proposed to reduce the lead emissions and environmental burdens of LABs in China, namely establishing an effective LABs recycling system, enlarging the market share of the legal regenerated lead, regulating the production of regenerated lead, and avoiding the long-distance transportation of the waste LABs.

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“…Depending on local biochemistry and biology, deposition may lead to changes in biodiversity [79]. Numerous methods have been developed for assessing acidification in LCA, e.g., addressing temporal scopes [80] or site-dependency for different endpoints [81]. In terms of background emissions and the level of stress, there has been considerable change in acidification emissions in the last few years.…”

Section: Acidification and Eutrophicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, sunlight used as a prerequisite for photochemical oxidation in the LOTOS-EUROS model to calculate national CFs [76], however, it is not incorporated to calculate seasonal characterization factors. While impact models may include temporal resolution, e.g., weekly meteorological modeling for acidification emissions [105], temporal aspects for acidification in LCA are mostly implemented as limitation in the scope of impacts over a period of time, such as 20, 100 and 500 years [80]. Seasonality is less expressed on the European continent but is highly relevant for both the Arctic and Antarctic, with sunlight varying from 0 to 24 h per day through the year.…”

Section: Influences Of the Arctic Context On Impact Assessment In Thementioning

confidence: 99%

Life Cycle Impact Assessment in the Arctic: Challenges and Research Needs

Pettersen

Song

2017

Sustainability

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Life cycle assessment (LCA) is increasingly used for environmental assessment of products and production processes to support environmental decision-making both worldwide and in the Arctic. However, there are several weaknesses in the impact assessment methodology in LCA, e.g., related to uncertainties of impact assessment results, absence of spatial differentiation in characterization modeling, and gaps in the coverage of impact pathways of different "archetypal" environments. Searching for a new resource base and areas for operation, marine and marine-based industries are continuously moving north, which underlines the need for better life cycle impact assessment in the Arctic, particularly to aid in industrial environmental management systems and stakeholder communications. This paper aims to investigate gaps and challenges in the application of the currently available impact assessment methods in the Arctic context. A simplified Arctic mining LCA case study was carried out to demonstrate the relevance of Arctic emissions at the midpoint and endpoint levels, as well as possible influences of the Arctic context on the impact assessment results. Results of this study showed that significant research gaps remain in Arctic-dependent life cycle impact assessment, particularly on: (i) the possible influences of the Arctic-specific features on characterization factors for impact assessment (such as seasonality, cold climate, precipitation, and marine dependence); and (ii) the coverage of impact pathways, especially on the under-addressed marine impacts and marine/near-shore dispersion processes. Addressing those identified research gaps and demand for future Arctic life cycle impact assessment could increase the credibility of LCA as an environmental decision-making support tool for Arctic industries and better support sustainable Arctic development.

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Time Horizon Dependent Characterization Factors for Acidification in Life-Cycle Assessment Based on Forest Plant Species Occurrence in Europe

Cited by 65 publications

References 22 publications

Field sensitivity distribution of macroinvertebrates for phosphorus in inland waters

Field sensitivity distribution of macroinvertebrates for phosphorus in inland waters

The Environmental Burdens of Lead-Acid Batteries in China: Insights from an Integrated Material Flow Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment of Lead

Life Cycle Impact Assessment in the Arctic: Challenges and Research Needs

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