Assessing Knowledge Production for Agrosilvopastoral Systems in South America

Soler, Rosina; Peri, Pablo Luís; Bahamonde, Héctor Alejandro; Gargaglione, Veronica Beatriz; Ormaechea, Sebastián Gabriel; Herrera, Alejandro Huertas; Jardón, Laura Sánchez; Lorenzo, Cristian; Pastur, Guillermo Martínez

doi:10.1016/j.rama.2017.12.006

Cited by 27 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Despite the lack of studies in tropical subhumid regions, the study of the silvopastoral systems has expanded in Latin American soils (Mauricio et al, 2019;Soler et al, 2018). In a study with tree legumes, Mosquera-Losada, Rigueiro-Rodríguez, and Ferreiro-Domínguez (2015) have shown that silvopastoral systems have greater inputs of less recalcitrant residues, with an increase of 43 g kg −1 of C at 25 cm depth.…”

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confidence: 99%

Legume silvopastoral systems enhance soil organic matter quality in a subhumid tropical environment

Lira

Fracetto

Ferreira

et al. 2020

Soil Science Soc of Amer J

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The silvopastoral system avoids the degradation of tropical grasslands by providing essential nutrients to the soil while improving livestock diet and farmer's income by increasing the marketable wood supply. We hypothesize that intercropping shrub‐tree legumes into signalgrass increases microbial activity and soil organic matter (SOM) quality. We investigated silvopastoral system soils over 5 yr in a subhumid climate in northeastern Brazil to determine the total C and N contents and to estimate C‐microbial biomass and respiration, microbial and metabolic quotients, humic acid (HA), and fulvic acid (FA). The experimental design evaluated (a) signalgrass intercropped with gliricidia at 0, 4, and 8 m from the center of the double legume row; (b) signalgrass intercropped with sabia at 0, 4, and 8 m from the center of the double legume row; and (c) single signalgrass. Samples were obtained after 2, 3, 4, and 5 yr from silvopastoral system implementation. The shrub‐tree legumes soils had total C (39 g kg−1) and total N (3.8 g kg−1) contents significantly higher (30 and 72%, respectively) than single signalgrass soil only on the fifth year after establishment. Microbial biomass C at 0 and 4 m from the legume's rows was 700 mg kg−1, which was 75% higher than single signalgrass soils. There was strong microbial respiration (∼50 mg C‐CO2 kg−1 d−1) in legumes soils, but the metabolic quotient did not indicate disturbance in microbial activity. The microbial quotients were significantly higher in shrub‐tree legumes soil, and the HA/FA ratio was nearly 1, demonstrating greater efficiency in SOM decomposition by microbial activity. Overall, 5 yr after establishment, the silvopastoral system has improved SOM quality and contributed to grassland sustainability.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Legume silvopastoral systems enhance soil organic matter quality in a subhumid tropical environment

Lira

Fracetto

Ferreira

et al. 2020

Soil Science Soc of Amer J

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“…Both of these systems are common across the world’s drylands, and used for livestock grazing (Pinheiro and Nair, 2018). Agrosilvopastoral systems, a further mixed land-use comprising planted trees, agricultural crops, and natural/planted herbaceous/shrubby vegetation, are also common across the world’s drylands (Soler et al, 2018). Yet, depending on the prevailing biophysical conditions, negative interactions between the trees and the inter-tree crops (e.g.…”

Section: Ecosystem Synergies For Accomplishing Additional (Non-regula...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate-smart forestry in the world’s drylands: A review of challenges and opportunities

Stavi

Argaman

2023

The Anthropocene Review

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Land degradation and desertification are widespread across the world’s drylands. These processes are substantially affected by climatic change, with long-term and severe droughts on the one hand, and high intensity rainstorms and devastating floods on the other hand. Simultaneously, land-use change and mismanagement practices have led to processes of accelerated soil erosion, depletion of soil organic carbon pools, and the degradation of extensive drylands. Forestry has been accepted as an effective means for restoring degraded drylands, and for attaining a range of regulating, provisioning, supporting, and cultural ecosystem services. Specifically, forestry is widely perceived as an effective means for soil erosion control, organic carbon sequestration, microclimate improvement, and climate change mitigation. However, forestry in drylands often proves to generate substantial environmental challenges, resulting in deterioration of ecosystem functions and health. The objective of this essay is to review the challenges and opportunities induced by dryland afforestation and reforestation, and highlight the need to attain climate-smart strategies for establishing and managing these land-uses. Particularly, tree species invasion and allelopathy, which are common in dryland forestry projects, jeopardize species richness and diversity of native vegetation communities. Further, the challenges linked with tree invasiveness necessitate predicting the distribution of potentially invasive species and foreseeing their impacts on the recipient ecosystems under projected climate change scenarios. The effect of allelopathy is significant under limited water availability conditions and is expected to be determined by the expanding drylands and intensifying aridity worldwide. Therefore, judicious selection of tree species should not only focus on ones with high water-use efficiency, low flammability, high pest resistance, and fast growth, but also on low invasiveness and allelopathic capacities. Insights of this essay may be used by land managers, stakeholders, and policy makers involved in environmental development of drylands.

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“…Global sustainability decisions should also take account of regional differences in productivity. Tree production for example, either with or without beef from agroforestry (Soler et al, 2018), is more efficient in subtropical than in temperate conditions. The present analysis of the sustainability of beef-production systems refers to the whole world but regional analyses of what is practicable could also be affected by global variation in light reflectance and hence views about the desirability of pasture usage in temperate and tropical situations.…”

Section: Assessment Of Sustainability Components For Beef Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A method for assessing sustainability, with beef production as an example

Broom

2021

Biological Reviews

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A comprehensive approach to decisions about the use of land and other world resources, taking full account of biological and other scientific information, is crucial for good decisions to be made now and in future. The sustainability of systems for producing food and other products is sometimes assessed using too narrow a range of component factors. A production system might be unsustainable because of adverse effects on a wide range of aspects of human welfare, animal welfare, or the environment. All factors should be included in sustainability evaluation, otherwise products or actions might be avoided without adequate consideration of key factors or of the diversity of production systems. A scoring method that is based on scientific information and potentially of general relevance is presented here, using beef production as a example with a review of each of its sustainability components. This includes an overall combined score and specific factors that make the system unacceptable for some consumers. The results show that, in this example, the sustainability of the best systems is very much better than that of the worst systems. By taking account of scores for a wide range of components of sustainability in comparing beef-production systems, better quality policies about beef use can be formulated than when statements referring only to one system are considered. The least sustainable beef-production systems are extensive grazing that causes land degradation and the use of feedlots or indoor housing with grain feeding. Semiintensive silvopastoral systems are the most sustainable beef-production systems, and well-managed pasture-fed beef from areas where crop production is uneconomic is also sustainable. This simple, scientifically based scoring system could be modified to use positive as well as negative scores and is of value for policy makers, researchers, producers, organisations aiming to improve sustainability, and the general public.

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Assessing Knowledge Production for Agrosilvopastoral Systems in South America

Cited by 27 publications

References 27 publications

Legume silvopastoral systems enhance soil organic matter quality in a subhumid tropical environment

Legume silvopastoral systems enhance soil organic matter quality in a subhumid tropical environment

Climate-smart forestry in the world’s drylands: A review of challenges and opportunities

A method for assessing sustainability, with beef production as an example

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