Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48823, USA.
Center for Environmental Studies and Research, State University of Campinas, Campinas, 13083-867, Brazil.
Sci Rep. 2021 Sep 20;11(1):18662. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-98256-6.
Human-environment interactions within and across borders are now more influential than ever, posing unprecedented sustainability challenges. The framework of metacoupling (interactions within and across adjacent and distant coupled human-environment systems) provides a useful tool to evaluate them at diverse temporal and spatial scales. While most metacoupling studies have so far addressed the impacts of distant interactions (telecouplings), few have addressed the complementary and interdependent effects of the interactions within coupled systems (intracouplings) and between adjacent systems (pericouplings). Using the production and trade of a major commodity (soybean) as a demonstration, this paper empirically evaluates the complex effects on deforestation and economic growth across a globally important soybean producing region (Mato Grosso in Brazil). Although this region is influenced by a strong telecoupling process (i.e., soybean trade with national and international markets), intracouplings pose significant effects on deforestation and economic growth within focal municipalities. Furthermore, it generates pericoupling effects (e.g., deforestation) on adjacent municipalities, which precede economic benefits on adjacent systems, and may occur during and after the soybean production takes place. These results show that while economic benefits of the production of agricultural commodities for global markets tend to be localized, their environmental costs tend to be spatially widespread. As deforestation also occurred in adjacent areas beyond focal areas with economic development, this study has significant implications for sustainability in an increasingly metacoupled world.
人类-环境在边界内和边界外的相互作用比以往任何时候都更加重要，带来了前所未有的可持续性挑战。元耦合（相邻和遥远的耦合人类-环境系统内部和之间的相互作用）框架提供了一个有用的工具，可以在不同的时间和空间尺度上评估它们。虽然迄今为止大多数元耦合研究都解决了遥远相互作用（遥耦合）的影响，但很少有研究解决耦合系统内部（内耦合）和相邻系统之间（旁耦合）相互作用的互补和相互依存效应。本文以一种主要商品（大豆）的生产和贸易为例，实证评估了跨越全球重要大豆生产地区（巴西马托格罗索州）的森林砍伐和经济增长的复杂影响。尽管该地区受到强大遥耦合过程（即与国内和国际市场的大豆贸易）的影响，但内耦合对焦点城市的森林砍伐和经济增长产生了重大影响。此外，它在相邻城市产生了旁耦合效应（例如，森林砍伐），这些效应先于相邻系统的经济利益，并且可能在大豆生产期间和之后发生。这些结果表明，虽然为全球市场生产农产品的经济利益往往集中在局部地区，但它们的环境成本往往分布广泛。由于森林砍伐也发生在经济发展的焦点区域以外的相邻地区，因此这项研究对于日益元耦合的世界中的可持续性具有重要意义。
