Addressing Regional Agro-ecological Boundaries: An Integrated Environmental Footprint Framework for Revealing Sustainability Gaps in Agroecosystems

Overexploiting ecosystems to meet growing food demands threatens global agricultural sustainability and food security. Addressing these challenges requires solutions tailored to regional agro-ecological boundaries (AEBs) and overall agro-ecological risks. Here, we propose a globally consistent and regionally adapted approach for quantifying regional AEBs. Based on this approach, we develop a region-specific integrated Footprint-AEB framework that combines six environmental footprints (EFs) with AEBs to capture the overall environmental impacts on China’s regional agro-ecosystems. Results indicate that individual EFs cannot reliably reveal the complexity of agro-ecological stressors without comprehensive assessment relative to regionally determined boundaries. For example, Northwest China faces higher water boundary stress despite lower water footprints compared to Central China, and regions such as Qinghai and Ningxia exhibit higher integrated AEB stress driven by combined water, land, and biodiversity stresses. Additionally, imbalanced integrated AEB stress transfer via trade, mainly from industrialized eastern to vulnerable western regions, is identified as a key driver of AEB exceedance in Northwest China. This fosters a nuanced understanding of environmental responsibility and equity. The integrated Footprint-AEB framework provides new insights into agro-ecosystem dynamics and supports targeted interventions to avoid shifting environmental stressors. These challenges confront agro-ecosystems worldwide.