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Livestock production is one of the largest and fastest growing agricultural subsectors in the world, contributing almost 40 % of agricultural GDP. The present global trend of livestock intensification affects water demand, resulting in local alterations of hydrological features. This study quantifies water requirements for livestock production and links them to local changes in water-related ecosystem services (WRES). It examines the present situation in Uruguayan beef production as it undergoes an intensification process by analyzing three systems: traditional extensive production, mixed systems and intensive production.Mixed production systems are most water-effective in terms of water requirement. However, extensive production has the least negative long-term effects on the studied WRESs: soil productivity, erosion control and grass, crop and livestock production. Intensive systems contribute the largest negative impacts on soil productivity due to management practices, e.g. continuous cropping and fertilizer application (which is also costly). However, intensification also increases short-term positive effects on crop and livestock production. Mixed systems offer opportunities to increase livestock production, water use efficiency and mitigate soil degradation. However, a threshold value to avoid an undesirable regime shift in soil productivity remains to be determined.This framework developed herein, maps and quantifies local ecosystem effects associated with livestock production from a water perspective. It required simplifications and thus needs further improvements to be of practical use as a tool for best management practices of livestock production. Such tools can assist decision-makers in Uruguay on how to manage multiple ecosystem services in an agricultural landscape and enhance the provision of desired ES without degrading other key ecosystem processes, goods and services. For sustainable production of livestock in Uruguay, one should consider if the tradeoff between long-term negative impacts of intensification on regulating services is justifiable in the context of the short-term economic gains in provisioning services.

This study aims to analyze in the geographical category rural space the agricultural production of the territory belonging to the region COREDE Fronteira Oeste do RS, through the contemporaneous acceleration, due to the Tecnic-Scientific-Informacional period following the globalization process f the economics. This region COREDE was analyzed from the intensification of the diffusion of modernization of fixed and flows and viewed as a functional place of spatial circuits of production and cooperation circles of agricultural production. Thus, it is understood that the region since past times os its production and reproduction strives to achieve new tecnological levels. Nowadays it reveals the investiments in advanced tecnology and determines this dynamic as a condition to ensure the production of other complexes that interact with it. The research standards pursued the methodology attending a critical comparative analysis. However, in this procedure it was decided to adopt two methods of investigation, a mixed qualitative and quantitative scheme to obtain the information. In this study, the combination of both criteria was considered essentially important to reach this purpose to offer a representation of the regional reality in nowadays and meet the formulated objectives. The data analysis showed the importance of the studied crops in the investigated region. Nevertheless, rice cultivation has been in the last decades the main agricultural production according to the analysis of historical research and qualitative assay. Today, rice production stands out compared to other crops produced. The increase in this production in the region and its maintenance identifies the specialization of the farming business. The specialization comes from the existence of an entire material and social structure formed by flows and fixed, built prioritizing the cultivation of rice, but serving other cultures, as soybean, corn and weath. The dynamics observed in the study area allowed to accept the idea that the current period reveals the region as a globalized space, and also that the region COREDE Fronteira Oeste is unique in its singularities. These arguments reinforce the idea of single space, uniqueness. / O estudo tem como propósito analisar na categoria geográfica espaço rural a produção agrícola do território pertencente à Região COREDE Fronteira Oeste do RS, à luz da aceleração contemporânea, promovida pelo período Técnico-Científico-Informacional acompanhando o processo de Globalização das economias. A Região deste COREDE foi analisada a partir da intensificação da difusão da modernização de fixos e fluxos e vista como um lugar funcional de circuitos espaciais da produção e de círculos de cooperação da produção agropecuária. Desse modo, entende-se que a Região desde períodos pretéritos de tempo de sua produção e reprodução empenha-se em alcançar novos níveis tecnológicos. No presente período revela os investimentos em meios tecnológicos avançados e determina esta dinâmica como condição de garantir a produção dos demais complexos que com ela interagem. As normas de investigação perseguiram a metodologia sistêmica sem deixar de atender a uma abordagem crítica nas análises comparativas. Para os procedimentos de obtenção das informações optou-se por uma forma mista de investigação, através dos métodos qualitativo e quantitativo. No caso deste estudo a combinação dos dois métodos foi considerada de fundamental importância para atingir o propósito de oferecer um retrato da realidade regional à luz do período atual e atender aos objetivos formulados. A análise dos dados demonstrou a importância dos cultivos analisados na Região estudada. Contudo, o arroz tem sido nas últimas décadas a principal cultura agrícola cultivada de acordo com as análises da série histórica investigada e recebendo apoio da análise qualitativa. Hoje, a produção de arroz se destaca frente às demais culturas produzidas. O aumento da produção de arroz na Região COREDE Fronteira Oeste, bem como a sua manutenção identifica a especialização empresarial desta lavoura. A especialização procede da existência de toda uma estrutura material e social formada pelos fixos e os fluxos, construída priorizando o cultivo do arroz, mas servindo às demais culturas, como a soja, o milho e o trigo. As dinâmicas observadas na área de estudo permitiram aceitar a idéia de que o período atual revela a Região como um espaço mundializado e, também, que ela, Região COREDE Fronteira Oeste, é única em suas singularidades. Estes argumentos reforçam a idéia de espaço único, de unicidade.