Assessing the human impacts on biodiversity is important for conserving biodiversity. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool to assess the impact product service systems have on the environment. To critically asses the human impact of land use on biodiversity in LCA, characterisation factors (CF) are needed to translate area and type of land use into loss of biodiversity. Most CFs are based on species richness but another biodiversity indicator, functional diversity (FD), better represents ecosystem functioning compared to taxonomic measures such as species richness. This study proposes a new method for calculating CFs, based on FD, for assessing impact of land use on plant biodiversity. To demonstrate the applicability of the method that is proposed, CFs were calculated based on data from Germany. The data was divided into four types, being land use, plant abundance, trait data and environmental data. The CFs developed show trends in impact on biodiversity in accordance with other studies. The proposed method in this study can guide in the development of more precise and geographically diverse CFs for assessing the impact of land use in biodiversity in LCA.

The UNEP-SETAC framework is the most well-known framework for including land use and land-use change (LULUC) impacts in life cycle assessment (LCA) in scientific literature. Yet issues regarding the framework’s validity have been recognized by several researchers and the framework has not been implemented in common LCA practices. Due to the need in both policy and science for a consensus on a method to include greenhouse gas (GHG) impacts deriving from LULUC in LCA, research in an improved framework is warranted. Therefore, the objective of this master thesis was to evaluate the UNEP-SETAC framework and propose improvements, with the overall goal to advance the method development of LULUC frameworks that quantify LULUC GHG emissions of agricultural products in LCA studies. A significant issue that was found was the UNEP-SETAC framework’s applicability to an attributional LCA (ALCA). The framework provides the LCA practitioner with various methodological choices that should be taken based on either an ALCA (i.e., an LCA that provides information on what portion of global burdens are associated with a specific product life cycle) or consequential LCA (CLCA; i.e., an LCA that provides information on the environmental burdens that occur, directly or indirectly, as a consequence of a decision). The analysis showed that the UNEP-SETAC framework is not suitable in its current form for an ALCA study. To advance method development, several weaknesses of the UNEP-SETAC framework were addressed in an improved conceptual framework. Using this improved framework for ALCA studies leads to additive results of all measurable anthropogenic emissions, relative to a pre-anthropogenic baseline. For CLCA, the forgone sequestration can be quantified to indicate the impact of using the land for the functional unit, relative to abandoning the land and letting it regenerate. A comparative LCA case study comparing the LULUC GHG emissions of sunflower oil cultivated in France and palm oil cultivated in Indonesia showed different results using the UNEP-SETAC framework and the improved conceptual framework. When using the UNEP-SETAC framework, it could be concluded that that the use of land for 1 kg of sunflower oil caused more GHG emissions, while when using the improved conceptual framework, it could be concluded the use of land for 1 kg of palm oil caused more GHG emissions. The results of the case study illustrated that the choice of LULUC framework can invert the conclusions of LULUC GHG emissions between two alternatives. This showed that it is highly important that the academic community reaches consensus on using one type of framework. It is essential that governmental and international bodies are aware of the weaknesses in the UNEP-SETAC framework that were identified in this thesis, as they potentially lead to inverted conclusions and a misinterpretation of results. For mitigation strategies of LULUC GHG emissions to be successful, it is important that the scientific community develops a more sound framework for including LULUC GHG emissions in LCA.

With the current trend in emissions, the pH levels of the oceans are expected to decrease from 8.1 to 7.8 by the end of the century. In combination with the other stressors, it is projected that OA will have a wide range of impacts on marine life and its services to humanity. The representation of these implications is limited in environmental assessment tools such as Life Cycle Assessment. This research explores the relationship between the changing acidity of the oceans and marine biodiversity loss. This relation is quantified through utilising the ecotoxicology impact assessment approach for LCA. Following this approach, an endpoint characterization model is developed for ocean acidification. 3 different categorisations (climate zones, calcification, exposure duration) were made to assess their effects on species responses. The results revealed that there is no significant difference in responses based on different exposure durations or climate zones. Calcifying species on the other hand is found to have a higher sensitivity to ocean acidification as the change in carbonate chemistry directly influences the shell and skeleton formation of these organisms. Lastly, these models were integrated into an endpoint characterization model for ocean acidification. From the 3 GHG emissions included within the scope of this research (CO2, CO, CH4), CO2 has the highest (CFCO2 = 4.883 × 104 (𝑃𝐷𝐹)𝑚3/𝑘𝑔𝐺𝐻𝐺) and CH4 has the lowest (CFCH4 = 4.072 × 104 𝑃𝐷𝐹)𝑚3/𝑘𝑔𝐺𝐻𝐺) impact on marine biodiversity loss due to OA. These ecosystem damage indicators can be utilised in the impact assessment phase of the Life Cycle Assessment to translate the inventory results into impact on marine biodiversity. Through the quantification of the impacts of ocean acidification, the effects of this major stressor on marine life can be better understood and targeted strategies can be developed. However, more research is required to increase the robustness of these models through expanding the species scope and incorporating temporal and geographical aspects into the models. Furthermore, the cascading effects of the changing ocean pH are still unknown and its consequences on ecosystems and socio-economic structures are unprecedented. To establish science-based targets and strategies to conserve the species richness in marine life, the extent of our understanding of the damage caused by anthropogenic actions needs to be further explored and estimated.

The cultivation of palm oil has many adverse social and environmental impacts. The high level of biodiversity that is native to areas where palm oil plantations occur is at risk. Various measures are taken, such as the Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). The RSPO certification is a sector governance measure that indicates which management and operations interventions have to be implemented to protect the public interest – countering negative social and environmental impacts. No research has been done on the impact of RSPO certification and the plantation size on biodiversity. The research question of this thesis is “do RSPO certification and plantation size influence the level of biodiversity of palm oil plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia?” Three open source online data sets from Global Forest Watch containing information on plantations were used. These spatial data sets were combined with Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) species observations data. From GBIF, four taxa were selected to be used in this study, known to be impacted by palm oil cultivation: birds, lizards, primates and small mammals. The majority of the GBIF observations that laid within the studied plantation data set, however, were bird observations (93.0%). Only 1.8% of the GBIF observations laid within the palm oil plantations. Data analysis indicated that there is no significant difference between RSPO and non-RSPO-certified plantations in terms of biodiversity. The obtained results imply that the measures that are taken by plantations to obtain the RSPO certificate do not affect the level of biodiversity and therefore certification does not protect the species living on plantations better when compared to plantations that are not RSPO-certified. Results also indicate that biodiversity is not influenced by the size of a plantation – small, medium or large. The proposed research was the first attempt in getting insight into the effectiveness of certification and small-scaled plantations – in other words plantation size – on biodiversity levels. It can be concluded that the effectiveness of the two measures has not been proven yet. Suggestions for further research are done, in which higher quality data sets and larger numbers of observations are of importance.