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Emergetic Evaluation of Cattle Rearing in a Montado Farm

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Emergetic Evaluation of Cattle Rearing in a Montado Farm EMERGETIC EVALUATION OF CATTLE REARING IN A MONTADO FARM Ana Margarida Pinto da Fonseca Tese apresentada à Universidade de Évora para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Gestão Interdisciplinar da Paisagem ORIENTADOR (A/ES): Carlos Alberto Falcão Marques Maria Teresa Pinto Correia ÉVORA, Dezembro 2016 INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGAÇÃO E FORMAÇÃO AVANÇADA UNIVERSIDADE DE ÉVORA Emergetic evaluation of cattle rearing in a Montado farm Ana Margarida Pinto da Fonseca ORIENTADOR (A/ES): Professor Doutor Carlos Alberto Falcão Marques Professora Doutora Maria Teresa Pinto Correia Dissertação Dezembro de 2016 To Julia and my parents, “In fact, the crisis is the result of the overgrowth of financial assets relative to growth of real wealth – basically the opposite of too little liquidity. We need to take a step back and explore some of the fundamentals that growth-obsessed economists and commentators tend to neglect” Herman Daly and Annelli Rufus, 2008 Acknowledgements I am grateful to my supervisors, Professors Carlos Falcão Marques and Teresa Pinto-Correia for their support and encouragement throughout my graduate studies. Professor Daniel Campbell from Environmental Protection Agency, United States, supervised closely my studies, introducing and guiding me through the emergy evaluation method and the energy systems approach, always accompanied with great friendship and affection. Special thanks are also due to the farm owner, his father and the accounting officer of the farm for their patience, constant availability and sympathy. I am grateful to Centro de Geofísica de Évora (Évora Geophysics Center) for their kind help in the collection of meteorological data and to the Soil Laboratory of University of Évora for the soil analyses. I am also grateful to Professor Carlos Oliveira, from Lusíada University, for his friendship and for sharing the determination of the Emergy to Money Ratio for Portugal for the year 2012. This work has been supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Foundation for Science and Technology) through a PhD grant attributed to Ana Fonseca (SFRH/BD/76814/2011) under the POPH-QREN-Tipologia 4.1 Programme. This work was funded by FEDER Funds through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness Factors - COMPETE and National Funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology under the Strategic Projects PEst-C/AGR/UI0115/2011 and PEst-C/QUI/UI0062/2011. I also would like to acknowledge ISAER - International Society for the Advancement of Emergy Research for the two grants that allowed me to participate in the 7th and 8th Biennial Conferences of ISAER at Gainesville, University of Florida. Finally I would like to acknowledge to my parents for their permanent support, interest and friendship. ix xi Resumo Avaliação emergética de uma exploração pecuária em Montado O Montado, em Portugal, é um complexo sistema silvopastoril de uso da terra, tipicamente Mediterrânico, com diversos estratos de vegetação, incluindo sobreiro e azinheira em várias densidades, onde é frequente a criação de gado. Esta actividade pecuária beneficia das pastagens no sob-coberto, de algumas espécies arbustivas e também das bolotas que caem do coberto arbóreo, contribuindo para evitar a invasão da pastagem por matos. No entanto, dependendo da sua gestão, este gado pode comprometer a regeneração do sistema. Nos últimos 20 anos, os subsídios no âmbito da Política Agrícola Comum da União Europeia têm promovido a criação de gado bovino em detrimento de outras espécies e raças mais leves, bem como a intensificação desta produção. Esta intensificação pode impossibilitar a regeneração natural das árvores ameaçando o equilíbrio do Montado. Por esta razão é necessária uma avaliação focada na criação de gado bovino e nos seus impactos sobre o sistema. O objectivo deste estudo foi obter uma melhor compreensão do funcionamento de uma exploração silvopastoril num sistema de Montado, através da aplicação do Método de Avaliação Emergética e do cálculo de índices emergéticos. Pretende-se assim compreender a melhor forma de o gerir, bem como conceber estratégias que maximizem o fluxo de emergia na exploração. Uma comparação deste método com a avaliação económica permitiu perceber em que aspectos esta pode ser complementada pelo método da avaliação emergética. O método da avaliação emergética permite a avaliação de sistemas multifuncionais complexos à escala de uma exploração individual, fornecendo informação extra em relação à avaliação económica como a renovabilidade dos inputs do sistema, ou a quantidade de fluxos livres da natureza que é valorada por preços de mercado. Este método permite a integração das emternalidades e das externalidades à contabilização económica, transformando uma avaliação tendencialmente separada do seu sistema mais vasto, numa avaliação de um sistema em conexão com aqueles mais vastos nos quais se integra. Palavras-chave: Montado, emergia, pecuária, multifuncionalidade, intensificação. 1 2 Abstract The Montado, in Portugal, is a complex silvo-pastoral system of land use, typically Mediterranean, with different strata of vegetation, including cork and holm oaks in various densities, and where cattle rearing is common. This stockfarm benefits from the herbaceous layer under the trees, as well as from some species in the shrub layer, and also from the acorns faling down from the tree cover, while contributing to prevent the invasion of pastures by shrubs. Nevertheless, depending on its management, livestock can affect the system regeneration. Over the past 20 years, subsidies of the European Union's common agricultural policy have promoted the cattle rearing at expense of other lighter species and breeds, as well as its intensification. This intensification may impair the natural regeneration of trees threatening the balance of the Montado. Therefore an assessment focused on cattle and their impact on the system is required. The purpose of this study was to obtain a better understanding of the functioning of a silvo-pastoral farm in a Montado system, by applying the emergy evaluation method and through the calculation of emergy indices. It is intended to understand the best way to manage and design strategies that maximize the emergy flow on the farm. A comparison of this method with the economic evaluation allowed to realize in what aspects it can be complemented by the emergy evaluation method. The emergy evaluation method alows the assessment of complex multi-functional systems at the scale of an individual farm, providing extra information in relation to economic avaluation as the renewability of the inputs to a system and the amount of free flows of nature that is valued by market prices. This method allows the integration of the emternalities and the externalities to the economic accounting, transforming an evaluation tended separated from its wider system, in an evaluation of a system in connection with the larger ones on which it is incorporated. Keywords: Montado, Emergy, Cattle rearing, Multifunctionality, Intensification. 3 4 List of Figures FIGURE 1 – ENERGY TRANSFORMATION HIERARCHY. (A) SPATIAL VIEW OF UNITS AND THEIR TERRITORIES. (B) ENERGY NETWORK INCLUDING TRANSFORMATION AND FEEDBACKS. (C) AGGREGATION OF ENERGY NETWORKS INTO AN ENERGY CHAIN. (D) BAR GRAPH OF THE ENERGY FLOWS FOR THE LEVELS IN ENERGY HIERARCHY. (E) BAR GRAPH OF SOLAR TRANSFORMITIES. ADAPTED FROM ODUM (1996). .......................................................................29 FIGURE 2 – THE MAXIMUM POWER PRINCIPLE IN ESL (ADAPTED FROM ODUM AND ODUM 2000). .........................31 FIGURE 3 – ENERGY SYSTEMS LANGUAGE (ODUM 1983, 1994) USED IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF ALL DIAGRAMS OF THIS STUDY. ...............................................................................................................................................................31 FIGURE 4 – INDEPENDENT SOURCES OF AVAILABLE ENERGY (SOLAR RADIATION, S, DEEP EARTH HEAT, E, AND THE GRAVITATIONAL ATTRACTION OF THE MOON AND SUN, G) RECEIVED BY THE EARTH. ADAPTED FROM ODUM (2007). .......................................................................................................................................................................32 FIGURE 5 – ESL DIAGRAM FOR A PINE PLANTATION ADAPTED FROM ODUM (2007). ................................................34 FIGURE 6 – SYSTEMS DIAGRAM OF THE ECONOMIC USE OF ENVIRONMENTAL PRODUCTS. ADAPTED FROM ODUM (2007). .......................................................................................................................................................................35 FIGURE 7 - AGGREGATE ENERGY SYSTEMS LANGUAGE DIAGRAM DESCRIBES A PROCESS BASED ON RENEWABLE INPUTS RECEIVED IN THE SYSTEM (R), LOCAL NONRENEWABLE INPUTS (N) AND INPUTS PURCHASED FROM OUTSIDE (F) THAT INCLUDE GOODS (M) AND SERVICES AND LABOR (S). SYMBOLS: ENERGY SOURCE (CIRCLE), ENVIRONMENTAL PRODUCTION SYSTEM (BULLET-SHAPE), STORAGE (TANK), LINES WITH ARROWHEADS (PATHWAYS CARRYING ENERGY, MATERIAL, OR INFORMATION), RECTANGLE (GENERAL PURPOSE SYMBOL, IN THIS CASE ECONOMIC USE) AND HEAT SINK (ARROW TO GROUND). SOURCE: (BROWN & ULGIATI, 1997; ODUM, 1996, P. 83). ............................................................................................................................................................................37 FIGURE 8 – OVERALL STRUCTURE OF AN EMERGY ACCOUNTING TABLE. ...................................................................37 FIGURE 9 - MAP WITH THE LOCATION OF THE HOLM OAKS FARM. ............................................................................56
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