Markus OlssonPhD student
About me
My research focus on environmental risks associated with seabed mining (SBM) for rare earth elements (REE) in the Baltic Sea, by quantifying potential impacts on benthic biodiversity and ecosystem processes. Interest in mineral resource extraction from the seabed has increased in recent years, primarily pushed by increased demand for REE which are essential for the transition to a low carbon economy. Current knowledge of SBM have focused on deep sea ecosystems and macroinvertebrate communities. However, impacts on shallow coastal ecosystems and microscopic communities (prokaryotes, protists and meiofauna) and on the ecosystem processes they mediate have yet to be assessed. The data generated from this research will be used to improve an environmental risk assessment (ERA) framework important for regulators to determine relationships between SBM and changes in marine biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.
