A comprehensive analysis of the environmental performance of the Uruguayan agricultural sector

作者：José M. Paruelo, Gonzalo Camba Sans, Federico Gallego, Pablo Baldassini, Luciana Staiano, Santiago Baeza, Hernán Dieguez · 发表于：Ecological Indicators · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1016/j.ecolind.2024.112385 · 被引用次数：11 · 研究领域：Sustainable Agricultural Systems Analysis

• Seven synoptic indicators were evaluated at the national level in Uruguay. • The environmental performance varied among regions and production systems. • Livestock farms exhibited better performance and less variability than cropland farms. • Cropland farms have the potential for comparable performance to less intensified areas. • Regional patterns varied among indicators, showing low redundancy. Ensuring food production while enhancing environmental sustainability is a critical challenge in the 21st century. Quantitative descriptions of environmental performance at the farm level are essential for evaluating agricultural production, aligning with climate and biodiversity goals, and facilitating sustainable transitions. However, many existing indicators and proxies rely on costly field-collected data with limited spatial generalization. In this study, we assessed the environmental performance of Uruguayan farms larger than 5 ha using seven synoptic indicators derived from remote sensing. These indicators included the proportion of natural habitats (NatHab), diversity of Ecosystem Functional Types (dEFT), supply of regulating and supporting Ecosystem Services (ESSI), their temporal trends (tESSI), Energy Available for Trophic Network (EATN; 1- Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production), Hydrological Yield (HY), and Soil Conservation (SC). We categorized rural cadastral units from different geomorphological regions into Cropland, Mixed, and Livestock production types. Res...