Integrated and multidisciplinary teams committed to the development of  sustainable animal production systems 

PECUS Research Network is the product of the coordinated effort between Embrapa and many other research institutes and universities. It is composed of 12 complementary Component Projects aimed at evaluating GHG dynamics and carbon balance in representative animal production systems in the six main Brazilian biomes: Atlantic Forest, Caatinga (semi-arid), Pantanal (wet lands), Pampa (southern prairies), Amazon, Cerrado (savanna). Methodologies linked to data organization, biophysical modeling, economy and geotechnologies will provide essential support to evaluate the consequences of anthropic emissions and mitigation of GHG.

The research network main characteristics are: trials repeated in time and space; use of internationally recognized methodologies; study of soil-plant-animal-atmosphere compartments; standardized data organized in database; modeling and evaluation of environmental and social-economic implications; development of scenarios to support government decisions, avoiding the use of default indexes and tiers that might not be adequate to Brazil . 

Essentially, the project aims to compare carbon balance in pasture and integrated production systems with potential to reduce green-house gases (GHG) emissions, using degraded pastures and the natural vegetation, respectively, as negative and positive controls.

 The most important aspects to be evaluated in the various production systems are:

- GHG emissions in the soil/plant system

- enteric methane emissions in ruminants (cattle, buffalo, sheep)

- GHG emissions in facilities and dejects (feed lots, poultry and swine farms)

- productive components of pastures, several integration systems and natural vegetation

- animal performance

- carbon sequestration

- carbon balance (CO² eq)

- economy

PECUS 12 component projects are: