Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Research Network (Robertson et al. 2008a, Walbridge et al. 2011) may provide
such opportunities in the future.
Summary
An ecological understanding of the row-crop ecosystem is necessary for design-
ing agricultural systems and landscapes that depend less on exogenous inputs of
chemicals and energy and more on internally provided resources for sustaining
the production of food, fiber, and fuel, while also optimizing the delivery of other
ecosystem services such as pest and disease suppression, nutrient acquisition and
conservation, and water-quality protection. This understanding must be based on
fundamental knowledge of interactions among major functional groups in agricul-
tural ecosystems and landscapes—plants, microbes, arthropods, and humans—and
how interactions change with management and natural disturbance to affect the
provision of services.
A conceptual model that incorporates coupled natural and human systems is
appropriate for asking many of the most relevant questions in agricultural ecol-
ogy. The KBS LTER conceptual model (Fig. 1.4) provides a means for asking
how the structure and function of row-crop ecosystems interact to deliver eco-
system services. The two linked realms of the model reflect how ecosystem ser-
vices affect and are perceived by people, who might then directly or indirectly
influence market and farmer decisions, public policy, and other actions that
feed back to affect row-crop management—thus iteratively changing ecologi-
cal interactions within the systems and subsequently the delivery of ecosystem
services. Additionally, the model provides a framework to analyze the social
and ecological consequences of external, unintentional drivers such as climate
change.
The KBS LTER experimental approach is to intensively study interactions within
model ecosystems, both cropped and unmanaged, and to then extend these find-
ings to the larger landscape through knowledge of human interactions, both social
and economic, and targeted observations made at the scale of commercial farms,
watersheds, and broader landscapes. Models tested locally can extend insights still
further to regional scales.
References
Basso, B., and J. T. Ritchie. 2015. Modeling crop growth and biogeochemical fluxes with
SALUS. Pages 252-274 in S. K. Hamilton, J. E. Doll, and G. P. Robertson, editors. The
ecology of agricultural Landscapes: long-term research on the path to sustainability.
Oxford University Press, New York, New York, USA.
Bolund, P., and S. Hunhammar. 1999. Ecosystem services in urban areas. Ecological
Economics 29:293-301.
Burbank, D. H., K. S. Pregitzer, and K. L. Gross. 1992. Vegetation of the W.K. Kellogg
Biological Station. Michigan State University Agricultural Experiment Station Research
Report 510, East Lansing, Michigan, USA.
