Transición socio-ecológica y su reflejo en un agroecosistema del sureste español (1752-1997)

This article is based on the premise that social metabolism shapes agro-ecosystems in a particular way. In territorial terms, the social metabolism leaves its own distinctive footprint on the territory, thus shaping specific types of landscape. It is therefore important to distinguish between the visible footprint, which all forms of agricultural metabolism make within the agro-ecosystem and the hidden footprint, which refers to that (often very distant) part of the territory from which the natural resources or environmental functions essential to the functioning of the metabolism under study originate. This article analyzes the socio-ecological transition of an agro-ecosystem in the south-east of Spain, the municipality of Santa Fe, and studies the changes undergone in the agricultural metabolism over a period of two hundred and fifty years (1752-1997). The study shows the different territorial arrangements of the two main forms of organization of the social metabolism which have existed since the mid-eighteenth century, dependent either on the soil or subsoil, according to whether their main source of energy is solar or from fossil fuels. It concludes that agricultural growth (i.e. a sustained increase in land productivity and work) is only possible through a correlative increase of the hidden footprint; that is to say, through the importation of energy and materials.