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

加强粮食、纤维和燃料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，需要广泛采用可持续的土地利用做法。巴西亚马逊地区占世界热带雨林的三分之一，维持着世界13%的生物群，但正在经历着大规模的森林砍伐。大约8%的森林已经被转换为其他土地用途，其中一个未知区域受到选择性采伐、边缘效应、地表火灾和狩猎的影响。传统农业涉及“刀耕火种”种植(水稻、木薯、玉米和豆类)，这种做法会耗尽土壤的养分，因此土地被遗弃，新的地区被开发。人口增长对土壤(通过较短的休闲期)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。种植和废弃的牧场占所有开垦土地的80%，因此迫切需要制定可持续的管理战略，以保护生态系统服务，遏制退化和被开发环境的增加。亚马逊社区面临的问题不仅仅是农业问题；水和能源服务几乎不存在。虽然亚马逊地区拥有丰富的自然资源，但当地居民在经济上却很贫穷。全年都有水可用；然而，水量和水质因河流水位的不同而有很大差异，在旱季，家庭成员，主要是妇女和儿童，必须步行数小时取水。由于缺乏能源服务，社区通常与电网隔绝。生物质气化等生物能源技术在这方面很有吸引力，因为它们可以提供能源服务(通过合成气供热、发电和发电)和生物炭，后者营养丰富，可用于改良土壤、促进作物生长和培育可持续农业。生物炭可提高土壤水分利用效率(为作物生长保留土壤水分)，并可用作过滤器去除饮用水中的污染物。生物炭还可以诱导对作物病原体的系统防御，在粮食生产方面可能具有根本性的重要性。这一国际研究伙伴关系的重点是开发创新的、适当的、可持续的废物和残渣燃料能源系统，以加强食物、水和能源服务的提供。将研究这些“废物转化能源”系统的环境效益(减少大气污染和温室气体排放、养分回收、废水清理)，以提供耦合的能源-环境服务，使所有最终用户受益。如果残渣能够有效地转化为合成气，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，我们将调查废物和残留物的潜力，以开发负担得起和可持续的能源-水-土壤-作物系统。最近，人们对废弃木材和阿拉伯油菜籽等区域生物质用于能源服务的潜力感兴趣，这显示出潜力，但几乎没有开展研究来评估这些能源服务在粮食-水-能源联结办法中的增值效益。

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.