A long - term sustainability assessment of an Argentinian agricultural system based on emergy synthesis

By tracking the different flows of emergy [the total amount of solar energy that was directly or indirectly required in a production process] it is possible to account for all environmental work previously involved in generating a resource, product or service. This donor-side perspective for environ...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Ferraro, Diego Omar
Otros Autores: Benzi, P.
Formato: Artículo
Lenguaje:Español
Materias:
Acceso en línea:http://ri.agro.uba.ar/files/intranet/articulo/2015ferraro.pdf
LINK AL EDITOR
Aporte de:Registro referencial: Solicitar el recurso aquí
LEADER 03748cab a22004457a 4500
001 AR-BaUFA000758
003 AR-BaUFA
005 20220223143413.0
008 181208t2015 |||||o|||||00||||spa d
999 |c 47154  |d 47154 
999 |d 47154 
022 |a 0304-3800 
024 |a 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2014.06.016 
040 |a AR-BaUFA 
100 1 |9 11063  |a Ferraro, Diego Omar 
245 0 0 |a A long - term sustainability assessment of an Argentinian agricultural system based on emergy synthesis 
520 |a By tracking the different flows of emergy [the total amount of solar energy that was directly or indirectly required in a production process] it is possible to account for all environmental work previously involved in generating a resource, product or service. This donor-side perspective for environmental assessment has the advantage over usual economic and energy analysis in the ability to value renewable and non-renewable environmental resource inputs both from the economy [purchased resources] and from nature [free resources] and compute their values on a common basis. On this basis, this paper presents the use of emergy synthesis on three cropping systems of the Pampa Region [Argentina] with the aim of evaluating the long-term trends [1984-2010] in emergy use and the effect of the adoption of new technologies in the study area. The cropping systems evaluated were wheat/soybean double cropping [W/S]; maize [M], and spring soybean [S]. Results form the emergy synthesis showed that the cropping systems studied were not only more productive but also more efficient over time. The range of the observed values for the emergy yield ratio [EYR] were 1.77-5.59, proving that the three cropping systems are considerably supported by renewable and locally available resources. The environmental load ratio [ELR] that represents the ratio between non-renewable and renewable resource inputs ranged between 0.3 and 1.43, a significant lower range compared to other extensive cropping systems. However, when inspecting the temporal dynamics of the emergy indicators, M and W/S showed a statistically significant optimum behavior, with the most favorable values just before the use of a more intensive cropping management represented by the use of genetically modified cultivars, the no-tillage adoption and the more frequent use of fertilizers at higher doses. By the time of these adoptions, both the EYR and ELR showed a breakpoint in their temporal dynamic, exhibiting a negative slope during the last years of the time series. Although the observed ranges of the emergy indicators can place these production systems among the most efficient and with the lower environmental impact, the negative trend in the emergy indicators shown in recent years constitutes a risky scenario in terms long-term sustainability. 
650 |2 Agrovoc  |9 26 
653 0 |a SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 
653 0 |a SOLAR ENERGY 
653 0 |a LONG-TERM SUSTAINABILITY 
653 0 |a GENETICALLY MODIFIED 
653 0 |a ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES 
653 0 |a ENVIRONMENTAL LOADS 
653 0 |a ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT 
653 0 |a ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT 
653 0 |a ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTING 
653 0 |a EMERGY, SUSTAINABILITY, AGRICULTURE 
653 0 |a ECONOMICS 
653 0 |a CULTIVATION 
653 0 |a ARGENTINA 
653 0 |a AGRICULTURE 
653 0 |a AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM 
700 1 |a Benzi, P.  |9 71602 
773 |t Ecological Modelling  |g vol.306 (2015), p.121-129 
856 |u http://ri.agro.uba.ar/files/intranet/articulo/2015ferraro.pdf  |i En reservorio  |q application/pdf  |f 2015ferraro  |x MIGRADOS2018 
856 |u http://www.elsevier.com/  |x MIGRADOS2018  |z LINK AL EDITOR 
942 0 0 |c ARTICULO 
942 0 0 |c ENLINEA 
976 |a AAG