Sci Total Environ. 2018 Nov 13;655:463-472. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.11.178. [Epub ahead of print]
Bergier I1, Silva APS2, Abreu UGP2, Oliveira LOF3, Tomazi M4, Dias FRT3, Urbanetz C2, Nogueira É3, Borges-Silva JC2.
Author information
- 1
- Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária - Embrapa Pantanal, Rua 21 de Setembro 1880, 79320-900 Corumbá, MS, Brazil. Electronic address: ivan.bergier@embrapa.br.
- 2
- Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária - Embrapa Pantanal, Rua 21 de Setembro 1880, 79320-900 Corumbá, MS, Brazil.
- 3
- Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária - Embrapa Pantanal, Rua 21 de Setembro 1880, 79320-900 Corumbá, MS, Brazil; Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária - Embrapa Gado de Corte, Av. Rádio Maia 830, Vila Popular, 79106-550 Campo Grande, MS, Brazil.
- 4
- Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária - Embrapa Agropecuária Oeste, Rodovia BR-163 km 253.6, 79804-970 Dourados, MS, Brazil.
Abstract
Bovine livestock is a major anthropogenic greenhouse gas source via enteric methane. Brazilian bovine livestock is also responsible for emissions from land-use changes. In contrast, enteric emissions from extensive cattle
systems in wetlands might have been overestimated. We provide
scientific evidences that the human footprint of bovine products
delivered by the Pantanal can be much lower. To assess this, a
historical cloud-free imagery of the Landsat-5, spanning 26 years, were
processed for mapping spatiotemporal landscapes in a Pantanal farm under
cattle
intensification studies. Eight landscape categories were identified
according to spatiotemporal dynamics of interannual floods. The
spatiotemporal map allowed in the field the adoption of stratified
random samplings of chamber gas fluxes. The combination of stratified
sampled landscapes with Monte Carlo simulations of measured methane
emissions in wet and dry soils permitted to integrate landscapes
emissions at annual basis with biased uncertainties. Assuming enteric
emissions obtained for the Pantanal region, our results suggest that the
landscapes methane emissions are 10- to 23-fold superior than the
enteric emissions of traditional bovine systems. While enteric emissions
seem negligible with respect to net farmland emissions, cattle livestock provide important environmental services like carbon recycling through non-competing herbivory. Moreover, cattle
might be making use of a biomass that would undergo decomposition
during the flooding phase. Our analysis thus indicate that enteric
emissions from traditional bovine systems in flooding farmlands could be
considered neutral. By contrast, intensification to improve the
stocking rate should be accounted as net anthropogenic emissions. A case
study of intensification allowed an increase of 48% in the stocking
rate, which is associated with net anthropogenic emissions from 534
bovine animals or about 27 to 63 Mg of enteric CH4 per year. In short, the competition between traditional and distinct levels of cattle intensification will result from a trade-off between public policies and strategic market niches (organic, sustainable) for the optimal landscape management of the Pantanal.
