[Emergy evaluation and dynamic measurement analysis of agro-ecosystems in Sichuan Province of Southwest China].

Agro-ecosystem is the most basic system for human beings survival, while the analysis of the structure and function of the system is the key to solve the problems of agro-ecological environment. In this paper, emergy theory and related economic measurement methods including data envelopment analysis, cointegration test, and error correction model were applied to quantitatively analyze the operation dynamics, environmental loading, operation efficiency, and input-output relation of the agro-ecosystems in Sichuan Province and its 21 cities in 1997-2009. In the study period, Sichuan Province was in the transition period from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture. The agricultural mechanization level of the Province improved constantly, resources utilization efficiency enhanced continually, overall structural dominant degree was better, but the over-reliance on economic emergy input caused the sustainability of the system weakened gradually. The development status of the agro-ecosystems in the Province varied among regions. Chengdu Plain and Western Sichuan Highland were either in overexploited or in underutilized, while the hilly areas were full of vitality and development potential, tended to be the important areas for the future development of Sichuan agriculture. Generally, the operation efficiency of the agro-ecosystems in the Province was relatively low, with the situation differed in different regions due to the lower technical efficiency or improper scale. There was a long-term equilibrium between the economic emergy indices and output emergy, but the short-term emergy input didn't reach the ideal output.