Analyzing the Impact of Critical Materials Production on Global Biodiversity | Chenzheng Li

Field | Discipline

• Conservation Biology
• Geosciences, Multidisciplinary

Expertise

• Conservation Planning
• Biodiversity Assessment

Summary

The demand for critical materials is growing significantly, driven by the energy transition, but their extraction creates unsustainable impacts on global biodiversity. These production activities often lead to habitat loss, pollutant release, and ecosystem degradation. However, current research faces several limitations that hinder effective conservation. There is a lack of comprehensive assessments on a global scale, as existing studies are often focused on a single material or region. Furthermore, an incomplete understanding of the causal mechanisms linking mining activities to biodiversity changes restricts the effectiveness of conservation strategies. The absence of detailed mining-related risk factors also compromises the scientific rigor of protected area (PA) planning. Therefore, a systematic analysis is needed to address these limitations.

To address these issues, this PhD project is composed of three stages. First, the project will use meta-analysis to systematically evaluate existing data and identify global patterns of impact on biodiversity from critical material production. Second, the research will analyze the underlying causal mechanisms by using machine learning models, including MaxEnt to simulate species habitat distribution and Causal Forest to reveal the causal effects of mining on biodiversity. Finally, the project will develop an enhanced protection planning framework that explicitly integrates risk assessments from this extraction. This stage will identify critical distance thresholds where mining significantly impacts biodiversity and use these findings to enhance the scientific robustness of PA planning under future scenarios.

Supervision by

• Promotor: Prof. Dr. K.S. (Klaus) Hubacek | Integrated Research on Energy, Environment and Society - IREES | ESRIG, University of Groningen.

• Co-promotor: Ass. Prof. dr.  X. (Xin) Sun | Integrated Research on Energy, Environment and Society - IREES | ESRIG, University of Groningen.

More information and contact details can be found on the personal profile of Chenzheng Li.