Agroecosystem energy transitions: exploring the energy-land nexus in the course of industrialization

Gingrich, Simone; Cunfer, Geoff; Aguilera, Eduardo

doi:10.1007/s10113-018-1322-x

Cited by 17 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…We use a set of seven representative case studies in North America and Europe from the 1830s to the 2010s. They have been researched within the Sustainable Farm Systems (SFS) project, dealing with energy and land-use transitions in agroecosystems (Gingrich et al, 2018c). The cases are from Central European lowland and prealpine agriculture (St. Florian and Grünburg, Austria) (Gingrich et al, 2018b), Western Mediterranean agriculture focusing on vineyards (Vallés, Catalonia, Spain) (Marco et al, 2018) and irrigated crops (Santa Fe, Andalusia, Spain) (Guzmán and González de Molina, 2015), maritime frontier agriculture (Queens, Prince Edward Island, Canada) (Mac Fayden and Watson, 2018), and grassland frontier agriculture (Nemaha and Decatur, Kansas, USA) (Cunfer et al, 2018) (Figure 1).…”

Section: Western Agroecosystems Studiedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Energy-Landscape Integrated Analysis (ELIA) of past and present agroecosystems in North America and Europe from the 1830s to the 2010s

Marull

Cattaneo

Gingrich

et al. 2019

Agricultural Systems

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Section: Western Agroecosystems Studiedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Energy-Landscape Integrated Analysis (ELIA) of past and present agroecosystems in North America and Europe from the 1830s to the 2010s

Marull

Cattaneo

Gingrich

et al. 2019

Agricultural Systems

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“…Agroecological energy analysis is applied to regional and national scales (Gingrich et al 2018b). Indeed, one goal of this approach is to explain landscape evolution and its relation with food system pattern (Padró et al 2017;Cattaneo et al 2018;Gingrich et al 2018a). Exergy approaches are also mainly focused on regional and national scales (Utlu and Hepbasli 2006;; Ghandoor and Jaber 2009; Ahamed et al 2011) with one exception addressed at farm scale (Liu et al 2017) and another two which were out of the "Web of Science" request (Huysveld et al 2015;Amiri et al 2020).…”

Section: System Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

Energetic assessment of the agricultural production system. A review

Hercher-Pasteur

Loiseau

Sinfort

et al. 2020

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

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Energy holds a key role in farm systems. Cultivation is based on the conversion of solar energy into biomass of interest. Fossil energy allows mechanized and high-yield agricultural production system, but has a strong impact on climate change, and its supply is compromised in the next decades. Energy flows stand between two worlds: while energy is a strategic component of the economy, it is also a thermodynamic state variable for describing ecosystems. This situation reemphasizes the need for energy flow analysis in farm systems. There is a great variety in the approaches used to compute energy flows at farm scales. Yet, their main characteristics and the ways they handle farm sustainability issues need to be clarified. This review identifies ten kinds of energetic approaches, i.e., (i) conventional energy analysis, (ii) pluri-energy analysis, (iii) agroecological energy analysis, (iv) exergy analysis, (v) cumulative exergy consumption, (vi) extended exergy account, (vii) cumulative exergy extraction from the natural environment, (viii) eco-exergy, (ix) cosmic exergy analysis, and (x) emergy assessment. These approaches are analyzed through key features to discuss their ability to address resources' efficiency issues and identify promising outcomes for energy assessment of farms. This analysis emphasizes the lack of clear definition of system boundaries in farm-scale studies. In addition, most of the studies mainly focus on socio-economic flows through a sectoral perspective. Yet, internal biomass flows that play a role in maintaining agroecosystem functionality can also be considered according to a circular/systemic perspective. Then, integration of soil organic matter in the energy balance leads to significant changes in energy efficiency evaluation playing a function of biotic energy storage in the farm system. Hence, some recommendations are provided to perform an exhaustive energetic assessment of farm systems as well as future lines of research to be investigated.

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“…The current state of research in landscape agroecology is set in the outcomes of the Sustainable Farm Systems research project, which has focused on an innovative development of Energy Return on Investment (EROI) analysis [6,[11][12][13] also merging it with MuSIASEM [14], on nutrient cycles [15,16] and on the original development of Energy-Landscape Integrated Analysis [10,17,18], which in turn draw from previous work on social metabolism [9,19,20] and EROI analysis [21]. As well, these novel methods applied in landscape agroecology can bridge with and contribute to the land sharing/sparing debate [22], which is still a controversial issue [23,24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape Agroecology. The Dysfunctionalities of Industrial Agriculture and the Loss of the Circular Bioeconomy in the Barcelona Region, 1956–2009

2018

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The paper analyses how between 1956 and 2009 the agrarian metabolism of the Barcelona Metropolitan Region (BMR) has become less functional, losing circularity in biomass flows and in relationship to its landscape. We do so by adopting a Multi-Energy Return on Investment (EROI) and flow-fund (MuSIASEM) analyses and the nexus with landscape functional structure. The study of agricultural flows of Final Produce, Biomass Reused and External Inputs is integrated with that of land use, livestock, power capacity, and population changes between 1956 (at the beginning of agrarian industrialization) and 2009 (fully industrialized agriculture). A multi-scale analysis is conducted at the landscape scale (seven counties within the Barcelona metropolitan region) as well as for the functions deployed, within an agroecosystem, by the mutual interactions between its funds (landscape, land-uses, livestock, and farming population). A complex nexus between land, livestock, dietary patterns, and energy needs is shown; we conclude that, from the perspective of the circular bioeconomy the agrarian sector has gone worse hand in hand with the landscape functional structure. Therefore, a novel perspective in landscape agroecology is opened.

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Agroecosystem energy transitions: exploring the energy-land nexus in the course of industrialization

Cited by 17 publications

References 47 publications

Comparative Energy-Landscape Integrated Analysis (ELIA) of past and present agroecosystems in North America and Europe from the 1830s to the 2010s

Comparative Energy-Landscape Integrated Analysis (ELIA) of past and present agroecosystems in North America and Europe from the 1830s to the 2010s

Energetic assessment of the agricultural production system. A review

Landscape Agroecology. The Dysfunctionalities of Industrial Agriculture and the Loss of the Circular Bioeconomy in the Barcelona Region, 1956–2009

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