Modeling the effects of ecosystem changes on seagrass wrack valorization: Merging system dynamics with life cycle assessment

Abstract

Seagrass meadows, while recognized as essential ecosystem service providers, are degrading worldwide. This has a profound impact on the environment but also on socioeconomic systems which hope to utilize beach-cast seagrass (wrack) as a bioresource. This study integrates system dynamics (SD) thinking with life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) to understand how a degraded ecosystem feedbacks into the circular bioeconomy. An SD model was created to assess the impacts of seagrass meadow changes on wrack production and on ecosystem services accounting, considering an Italian case study of wrack deposited on a beach. Environmental and economic impacts of wrack valorization through anaerobic digestion (AD) were then determined through LCA and LCC. Finally, an extended LCC combined the results of the SD model, LCA, and LCC to demonstrate the cost of seagrass meadow degradation and the value of restoration. The results confirmed complexities in stakeholder perspective within the waste-to-resource framework. For the AD operator, meadow restoration would increase the profits from wrack valorization (23.10 €/ton), while for the municipality, meadow degradation would reduce the high costs associated with management (104.29–140.00 €/ton). When also considering the impacts on the environment and local community, valuation of ecosystem services and cost of restoration were influential. Meadow restoration with wrack valorization was the most favorable option if the natural capital of the seagrass meadows was valued appropriately (>0.065 €/m2) and direct costs of restoration could be kept relatively low (<1179 €/ha). Overall, the model resulted in a total net present cost of −3.161,462.40 € for the baseline scenario, −1,488,277.28 € for the scenario of wrack valorization, and −1,231,325.12 € for the scenario of wrack valorization and meadow restoration.