Condition of natural capital and range of ecosystem services from integrated crop-livestock-forest systems on a Brazilian Ferralsol

• Grant number: 22/14135-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: January 01, 2023
• End date: December 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Soil Science
• Principal Investigator: Miguel Cooper
• Grantee: Gustavo Pereira Valani
• Supervisor: Estelle Dominati
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: AgResearch, Grasslands, New Zealand
• Associated to the scholarship: 19/14144-0 - Soil physical quality in integrated agricultural systems, pastures and native forest: correlation between on-farm, analytical and digital measurements, BP.DR

Abstract

Integrated crop-livestock-forest systems potentially offer a more sustainable basis for agricultural production than non-integrated systems. Although integrated systems are advanced as a possible way to strengthen and expand the provision of ecosystem services, there is a lack of data due to the limited number of studies on this topic. This project addresses this scarcity of data by aiming to quantify the provision of ecosystem services from different livestock-based systems on a Brazilian Ferralsol. Five livestock-based systems will be studied: continuous grazing, rotational grazing, integrated livestock-forest system, integrated crop-livestock system, and integrated crop-livestock-forest system. The provision of ecosystem services from these five systems will be compared with the services provided from a native vegetation area. The project will make use of all the data that has been collected from the "Southeast Livestock" experimental unit of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) located in the municipality of São Carlos, Brazil. As part of the project, the condition of the natural capital stocks of each system will be described and quantified, as well as the ecosystem services (provisioning, regulating and cultural/social) from each of the six systems. The results will be analyzed by nonparametric tests and multivariate statistics to check differences between systems and to study interactions between ecosystem services. Included in the analysis, would be reporting on the impact of each livestock-based system on receiving environments. The project from January to December 2023 will be supervised by Dr. Estelle Dominati at the Grassland Center from AgResearch in Palmerston North, New Zealand. The supervisor has extensive experience in the quantification of ecosystem service from agro-ecosystems, therefore the methods would be investigated and adapted to study the Brazilian farm systems. (AU)