Department of Oceanography, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Anglin & Associates Consulting, North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Glob Chang Biol. 2024 May;30(5):e17334. doi: 10.1111/gcb.17334.
The crises of climate change and biodiversity loss are interlinked and must be addressed jointly. A proposed solution for reducing reliance on fossil fuels, and thus mitigating climate change, is the transition from conventional combustion-engine to electric vehicles. This transition currently requires additional mineral resources, such as nickel and cobalt used in car batteries, presently obtained from land-based mines. Most options to meet this demand are associated with some biodiversity loss. One proposal is to mine the deep seabed, a vast, relatively pristine and mostly unexplored region of our planet. Few comparisons of environmental impacts of solely expanding land-based mining versus extending mining to the deep seabed for the additional resources exist and for biodiversity only qualitative. Here, we present a framework that facilitates a holistic comparison of relative ecosystem impacts by mining, using empirical data from relevant environmental metrics. This framework (Environmental Impact Wheel) includes a suite of physicochemical and biological components, rather than a few selected metrics, surrogates, or proxies. It is modified from the "recovery wheel" presented in the International Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration to address impacts rather than recovery. The wheel includes six attributes (physical condition, community composition, structural diversity, ecosystem function, external exchanges and absence of threats). Each has 3-5 sub attributes, in turn measured with several indicators. The framework includes five steps: (1) identifying geographic scope; (2) identifying relevant spatiotemporal scales; (3) selecting relevant indicators for each sub-attribute; (4) aggregating changes in indicators to scores; and (5) generating Environmental Impact Wheels for targeted comparisons. To move forward comparisons of land-based with deep seabed mining, thresholds of the indicators that reflect the range in severity of environmental impacts are needed. Indicators should be based on clearly articulated environmental goals, with objectives and targets that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound.
气候变化和生物多样性丧失的危机相互关联，必须共同解决。减少对化石燃料的依赖，从而缓解气候变化的一个建议解决方案是，从传统的内燃机汽车向电动汽车过渡。这种转变目前需要额外的矿产资源，例如电动汽车电池中使用的镍和钴，目前这些矿产资源是从陆基矿山中获得的。满足这一需求的大多数选择都与生物多样性的一些损失有关。一种提议是开采深海海底，这是我们星球上一个广阔、相对原始且大部分未被探索的区域。目前仅对扩大陆基采矿与将采矿扩展到深海海底以获取额外资源进行环境影响比较的研究很少，并且仅对生物多样性进行了定性比较。在这里，我们提出了一个框架，使用相关环境指标的经验数据，方便对通过采矿对相对生态系统影响进行整体比较。该框架（环境影响轮）包括一套物理化学和生物组成部分，而不是少数几个选定的指标、替代物或指标。它是根据生态恢复国际标准中提出的“恢复轮”进行修改的，旨在解决影响而不是恢复问题。该轮包括六个属性（物理状况、群落组成、结构多样性、生态系统功能、外部交换和无威胁）。每个属性都有 3-5 个子属性，依次使用几个指标进行测量。该框架包括五个步骤：（1）确定地理范围；（2）确定相关时空尺度；（3）为每个子属性选择相关指标；（4）将指标变化汇总为分数；（5）为有针对性的比较生成环境影响轮。为了推进陆地与深海海底采矿的比较，需要确定反映环境影响严重程度范围的指标阈值。指标应基于明确表述的环境目标，具有明确、可衡量、可实现、相关和有时限的目标和指标。
