Newton Fund: Novel strategies for the recovery of deforested and degraded landscapes in the Amazon region: sustainable energy-food-water services

要提高粮食、纤维和燃料的生产，以满足日益增长的需求，同时保持自然生态系统的完整性及其提供关键服务的能力，就需要广泛采用可持续土地利用做法。巴西的亚马逊雨林占世界热带森林的三分之一，维持着世界13%的生物群，但正在经历大规模的森林砍伐。大约8%的森林已被转换为其他土地用途，其中未知区域因选择性采伐、边缘效应、地表火灾和狩猎而被改变。传统农业包括“刀耕火种”（水稻、木薯、玉米和豆类），这种做法耗尽了土壤的养分，导致土地被遗弃，新地区被开发。人口增长对土壤（通过更短的休耕期）和森林资源提出了更大的需求，鼓励了环境上不可持续的肉类和牛奶生产做法的增长。种植和废弃牧场占所有清除土地的80%，因此迫切需要建立可持续的管理战略，以保护生态系统服务并遏制退化和开发环境的增加。亚马逊社区面临的问题不仅仅是农业；水和能源服务几乎不存在。虽然亚马逊地区自然资源丰富，但当地人口经济贫困。全年都有水供应；然而，水的数量和质量取决于河水的水位，在旱季，家庭成员，主要是妇女和儿童，必须步行数小时去取水。由于缺乏能源服务，社区通常与电网隔离。在这种情况下，生物质能气化等生物能源技术具有吸引力，因为它们可以提供能源服务（通过合成气供热、发电和发电）和富含营养的生物炭，可用于改善土壤、促进作物生长和培育可持续农业。生物炭提高了土壤水分利用效率（为作物生长保持土壤水分），可以作为过滤器从饮用水中去除污染物。生物炭还可以诱导对作物病原体的系统防御，并且在粮食生产方面可能具有根本重要性。这一国际研究伙伴关系的重点是发展创新的、适当的、可持续的废物和残留物燃料能源系统，以加强粮食、水和能源服务的提供。将审查这些“废物转化为能源”系统的环境效益（减少大气污染和温室气体排放、营养物质回收、废水清理），以提供使所有最终用户受益的能源-环境耦合服务。如果能有效地将残留物转化为合成气，这将为替代不可持续的化石燃料提供一种替代资源。利用我们的多学科专业知识，我们将研究废物和残留物的潜力，以开发负担得起的可持续能源-水-土壤-作物系统。最近对诸如废木材和巴西莓种子等区域生物量在能源服务方面的潜力的兴趣显示出潜力，但在粮食-水-能源联系方法内评估这些能源服务的附加价值效益的研究很少。

Enhancing food, fibre and fuel production to meet growing demand while preserving the integrity of natural ecosystems and their capacity to deliver key services, requires the widespread adoption of sustainable land use practices. The Brazilian Amazon comprises one third of the world's tropical forests and sustains 13% of the world's biota but is experiencing extensive deforestation. Around 8% of forests have been converted to other land uses with an unknown area modified by selective logging, edge effects, surface fires, and hunting. Traditional farming involves 'slash-and-burn' cultivation (for rice, cassava, maize and beans) a practice which depletes soils of nutrients so land is abandoned and new areas exploited. Population growth has placed greater demands on soil (via shorter fallow periods) and forest resources encouraging the growth of environmentally unsustainable meat and milk production practices. Planted and abandoned pastures account for 80% of all cleared lands thus there is urgent need to establish sustainable management strategies to protect ecosystem services and arrest the increase in degraded and exploited environments. Issues faced by Amazonian communities are not solely agricultural; water and energy services are virtually non-existent. Although the Amazon region is rich in natural resources, local populations are economically poor. Water is available throughout the year; however, the quantity and quality varies considerably depending on river water levels and in the dry season, family members, primarily women and children, have to walk for hours to fetch water. Communities are typically isolated from the electric grid with a lack of energy services. Bioenergy technologies such as biomass gasification are attractive in this context since they can provide energy services (via syngas for heat, power and electricity) and biochar which is nutrient-rich and can be used to improve soils, enhance crop growth and nurture sustainable agriculture. Biochar improves soil water use efficiency (retaining soil moisture for crop growth) and can be used as a filter to remove pollutants from drinking water. Biochar may also induce systemic defence against crop pathogens and may be of fundamental importance in terms of food production. The focus of this international research partnership is to develop innovative, appropriate, sustainable waste and residue-fuelled energy systems which enhance delivery of food, water and energy services. The environmental benefits of these 'waste to energy' systems (diminished atmospheric pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient recovery, wastewater cleanup) will be examined to provide coupled energy-environment services which benefit all end-users. If residues can efficiently be converted into syngas this will provide an alternative resource for the replacement of unsustainable fossil fuels. Using our multidisciplinary expertise we will investigate the potential of wastes and residues to develop affordable and sustainable energy-water-soil-crop systems. Recent interest in the potential of regional biomass such as waste timber and acai seeds (Euterpe oleracea) for energy services shows potential but little research has been undertaken to assess the added-value benefits of these energy services within a food-water-energy nexus approach.