The production of beef cattle in the Atlantic Forest biome mostly takes place in pastoral production systems. There are millions of hectares covered with pastures in this biome, including degraded pasture (DP), and only small area of the original Atlantic Forest has been preserved in tropics, implying that actions must be taken by the livestock sector to improve sustainability. Intensification makes it possible to produce the same amount, or more beef, in a smaller area; however, the environmental impacts must be assessed. Regarding climate change, the C dynamics is essential to define which beef cattle systems are sustainable. The objectives of this study were to investigate the C balance (t CO2e./ha per year), the intensity of C emission (kg CO2e./kg BW or carcass) and the C footprint (t CO2e./ha per year) of pasture-based beef cattle production systems, inside the farm gate and considering the inputs. The results were used to calculate the number of trees to be planted in beef cattle production systems to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The GHG emission and C balance, for 2 years, were calculated based on the global warming potential (GWP) of AR4 and GWP of AR5. Forty-eight steers were allotted to four grazing systems: DP, irrigated high stocking rate pasture (IHS), rainfed high stocking rate pasture (RHS) and rainfed medium stocking rate pasture (RMS). The rainfed systems (RHS and RMS) presented the lowest C footprints (−1.22 and 0.45 t CO2e./ha per year, respectively), with C credits to RMS when using the GWP of AR4. The IHS system showed less favorable results for C footprint (−15.71 t CO2e./ha per year), but results were better when emissions were expressed in relation to the annual BW gain (−10.21 kg CO2e./kg BW) because of its higher yield. Although the DP system had an intermediate result for C footprint (−6.23 t CO2e./ha per year), the result was the worst (−30.21 CO2e./kg BW) when the index was expressed in relation to the annual BW gain, because in addition to GHG emissions from the animals in the system there were also losses in the annual rate of C sequestration. Notably, the intensification in pasture management had a land-saving effect (3.63 ha for IHS, 1.90 for RHS and 1.19 for RMS), contributing to the preservation of the tropical forest.

大西洋森林生物群系中的肉牛生产主要在牧业生产系统中进行。这个生物群落中有数百万公顷的牧场被牧场覆盖，包括退化的牧场（DP），热带地区仅保留了原始大西洋森林的一小部分，这意味着畜牧业必须采取行动来改善可持续性。通过集约化，可以在较小的区域内生产相同数量或更多的牛肉。但是，必须评估环境影响。关于气候变化，碳动力学对于确定哪些肉牛系统可持续是必不可少的。这项研究的目的是调查碳平衡（t CO 2e./ha每年），碳排放强度（kg CO 2e）。/ kg体重或car体）和基于牧场的肉牛生产系统的C足迹（每年t CO 2e。/ ha），并考虑投入量。结果被用来计算待种植在肉牛生产系统减少温室气体（树木的数量GHG）的排放量。根据AR4和AR5的全球变暖潜势（GWP）计算了2年的温室气体排放量和碳平衡。将48个ers牛分配给四个放牧系统：DP，灌溉高放牧率牧场（IHS），雨养高放牧率牧场（RHS）和雨育中放牧率牧场（RMS）。雨养系统（RHS和RMS）的碳足迹最低（-1.22和0.45 t CO 2e）。/公顷/年），并在使用AR4的GWP时将C学分记入RMS。信息处理系统，系统显示对C足迹不太有利的结果（-15.71吨，二氧化碳2E。 /公顷每年），但结果是，当排放相对于全年BW增益表达更好（公斤-10.21 CO 2E。 / kg体重），因为其较高的产量。虽然DP系统具有对C足迹的中间结果（-6.23吨CO 2e中。每年/公顷），其结果是最坏（-30.21 CO 2E。/ kg BW）表示与年度BW增幅有关的指数，因为除了系统中动物的温室气体排放外，每年的固碳速率也有所损失。值得注意的是，集约化牧场管理可以节省土地（IHS为3.63公顷，RHS为1.90公顷，RMS为1.19公顷），有助于保护热带森林。