The emergy of metabolism in different ecosystems under the same environmental conditions in the agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China

- The emergy inputs and outputs of ten ecosystems show obvious differences in the agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China.
- Rain input constituted the highest renewable natural resource emergy.
- Purchased emergy input is the direct cause of the development of the ecosystems under the same environmental conditions.
- Groundwater was the most important non-renewable purchased energy for the production of economic crops.
- Because of low environmental load and high sustainability, rain-fed artificial grassland has a high development potential.

The sustainability of ecosystem productivity and rules governing ecosystem development are important topics of scientific research. The emergy approach is an effective method for investigating these topics, especially when used to evaluate systems that have developed under the same environmental conditions, such as climate and soil. In this paper, emergy differences between terrestrial ecosystems were studied in Guyuan County, a region representative of the agro-pastoral ecotone in Hebei Province, China. A combination of field tests and a questionnaire survey were carried out between June and August 2015. The ecosystems studied included natural grassland, artificial grassland, field crops and commercial crops. These four ecosystems were further subdivided into a total of ten ecosystems. Natural grassland was divided into free-grazing and mowed ecosystems; artificial grassland consisted of oat, Chinese leymus and corn silage; field crops included naked oats, flax and wheat; and commercial crops consisted of cabbage and potatoes. The results showed that the rain input of 4.78 × 1014 seJ/ha/yr constituted the highest renewable natural resource emergy and that the purchased emergy inputs of the ten ecosystems ranged from 3.53 to 147.67 × 1014 seJ/ha/yr. Natural resource emergy input was the basic power to maintain the ecosystem, and purchased emergy input was the direct cause of the development of the ecosystems. Groundwater was the most important non-renewable purchased energy for the production of economic crops. The emergy investment ratios (EIR) for potatoes (27.81) and cabbage (19.03) were higher than those of the other ecosystems, but mowed and artificial Chinese leymus grassland had the higher emergy self-sufficiency rates (ESR). Natural grassland, artificial Chinese leymus grassland and traditional grain crops had a low environmental load and high sustainability, whereas potatoes and cabbage had a high environmental load and low sustainability. Overall, rain-fed artificial grassland has a high development potential from the perspective of environment and productivity.