Written By HyeJin Kim
Biodiversity underpins every aspect of life; the water we drink, the food we eat and our health. Yet it is being lost at an unprecedented rate. To halt or reverse biodiversity loss, it is critical to understand the role of biodiversity in food production and consumption, water quality and availability, climate regulation and mitigation, human and ecosystem health, energy production and means of transportation. Understanding these interlinkages provides critical evidence towards improving biodiversity, climate change and human well-being. This information on the interlinkages needs to be available for use in decision-making processes to develop holistic policies and actions.
To help this understanding, we conducted a literature review on the interlinkages between biodiversity and climate change, food, water, energy, transport and health (“the biodiversity nexus”). Evidence extracted from 194 peer-reviewed articles was analysed to assess how biodiversity is being influenced by and is influencing the other nexus elements.
Figure 1. The biodiversity nexus demonstrates the diverse, intertwined relationships between people and nature. It shows how our resource use affects nature and biodiversity and vice versa.
The biodiversity nexus explained
The BIONEXT project uses nexus approaches to analyze interconnections between the seven sectors or so-called nexus elements: biodiversity, climate, food, water, energy, transport and health. The term “nexus” describes the intricate interactions and dependencies between different nexus elements. Nexus studies aim to examine and address sustainability challenges by facilitating and accelerating synergistic outcomes across multiple sectors and minimizing or balancing trade-offs to avoid unintended consequences on nature and society.
Using the nexus approach, we found that evidence exists on how biodiversity is influenced by and influences other nexus elements (so-called “biodiversity nexus”), but more research is needed on positive influences involving biodiversity that lead to co-benefits across sectors. The results were published in a paper which focused on reviewing the literature on past and present interactions in the biodiversity nexus. It aimed to consolidate and synthesize the large volume of existing, but fragmented evidence on the biodiversity nexus in Europe.
Figure 2. The article’s results summarized.
Biodiversity’s impact on climate, food, water, energy, transport and health and vice versa
The review gave valuable insight into the impact of human activities on biodiversity through the water, food, energy, transport and health elements. An overwhelming portion of studies highlighted the substantial damage being inflicted on nature by human activities in these elements. These negative impacts include:
- Land use/land use alteration: habitat destruction for expansion of food production, competition for land from land-based renewable energy (bioenergy, solar, wind), habitat fragmentation from transport and energy infrastructure.
- Water use/water course alteration: alteration of water flows and river fragmentation due to dams and reservoirs related to hydropower, water demand for energy and irrigation reducing environmental flows, and dredging affecting coastal and marine ecosystems.
- Land degradation: agricultural intensification affecting habitat quality and species diversity and richness, peat extraction for energy, and mining for renewable energy.
- Water degradation: eutrophication, acidification, brownification and sedimentation affecting freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems and species.
- Climate change: heat or water stress, seasonality and floods impacting species and ecosystems.
- Direct species fatalities: wind turbines and traffic (road, rail, shipping) causing direct collisions.
Alternatively, there was limited evidence on how biodiversity could negatively impact other sectors, which included competition for land, disease transmission from a small set of species triggered by habitat gain or loss and climate change, and the introduction and expansion of invasive alien species.
Furthermore, the review found that some policies and management actions can bring multiple benefits (so called “co-benefits”) between biodiversity and other elements. The practices that bring co-benefits included:
- Biodiversity-friendly management: agro-biodiversity or agroecological practices, sustainable management of bioenergy cropping systems, integrated management of water landscapes, and management of habitats on road verges and railway embankments.
- Restoration of ecosystems: forests and peatlands for climate mitigation and biomass energy production, riparian forests for flood control, and remediation of water courses for improving water quality.
- Protection of species and ecosystems: that are key in maintaining and enhancingecosystem services such as water filtration and water retention.
- Urban green and blue infrastructure: green roofs for improving energy performance in buildings, greening of transport infrastructure for pollution control through promotion of active transport (walking, cycling), urban green space for health benefits.
- Dietary change: moving to healthier and more sustainable diets, including reducing the consumption of meat to reduce livestock for climate mitigation.
Figure 3. Biodiversity’s impact on the nexus elements and vice versa.
Information and research on the biodiversity nexus is needed for decision-making processes
Identifying appropriate holistic interventions and actions may require evidence to be identified and analysed from nexus studies with local practitioners and experts for the proper design, planning and implementation of policies. To help this work, we formulate key recommendations on how to improve this evidence base:
- Information on the biodiversity nexus needs to be available for decision-making processes. This review reveals that rich information on the biodiversity nexus exists in the literature and practice. It is essential that this information is made available and synthesized for use in decision processes.
- Further research is needed on quantifying positive impact relationships in the biodiversity nexus. This research would inform the implementation of synergistic actions that have co-benefits for biodiversity and other elements. This is particularly critical given the current dominance of the literature on negative impact assessment between biodiversity and other nexus elements.
- Reviews such as this one should be replicated in other world regions. The replications will help us to better understand regional, environmental, economic and socio-political similarities and differences in the biodiversity nexus.
In conclusion, the database of this review strengthened understanding on the interlinkages in the biodiversity nexus, highlighting their complexity and context-dependent nature. The review is a valuable first step towards understanding the diverse underpinning role of biodiversity in maintaining and improving ecosystems’ resilience and human well-being for the sustainable future of people and the planet.