Description
Evidence has been mounting for some time that intensive row-crop agriculture as practiced in developed countries may not be environmentally sustainable, with concerns increasingly being raised about climate change, implications for water quantity and quality, and soil degradation. This volume synthesizes two decades of research on the sustainability of temperate, row-crop ecosystems of the Midwestern United States. The overarching hypothesis guiding this work has been that more biologically based management practices could greatly reduce negative impacts while maintaining sufficient productivity to meet demands for food, fiber and fuel, but that roadblocks to their adoption persist because we lack a comprehensive understanding of their benefits and drawbacks.The research behind this book, based at the Kellogg Biological Station (Michigan State University) and conducted under the aegis of the Long-term Ecological Research network, is structured on a foundation of large-scale field experiments that explore alternatives to conventional, chemical-intensive agriculture. Studies have explored the biophysical underpinnings of crop productivity, the interactions of crop ecosystems with the hydrology and biodiversity of the broader landscapes in which they lie, farmers' views about alternative practices, economic valuation of ecosystem services, and global impacts such as greenhouse gas exchanges with the atmosphere. In contrast to most research projects, the long-term design of this research enables identification of slow or delayed processes of change in response to management regimes, and allows examination of responses across a broader range of climatic variability. This volume synthesizes this comprehensive inquiry into the ecology of alternative cropping systems, identifying future steps needed on the path to sustainability.
Table of Contents
Contents1 Conceptual and Experimental Approaches to Long-term Ecological Research at the Kellogg Biological Station 1G. Philip Robertson and Stephen K. Hamilton2 Farming for Ecosystem Services: An Ecological Approach to Production Agriculture 44G. Philip Robertson, Katherine L. Gross, Stephen K. Hamilton, Douglas A. Landis, Thomas M. Schmidt, Sieglinde S. Snapp, and Scott M. Swinton3 Economic Value of Ecosystem Services from Agriculture 76Scott M. Swinton, Christina B. Jolejole-Foreman, Frank Lupi, Shan Ma, Wei Zhang and Huilan Chen4 A Crop Stress Index to Predict Climatic Effects on Row-crop Agriculture in the U.S. North Central Region 110Stuart H. Gage, Julie E. Doll, and Gene R. Safir5 Soil Organic Matter Dynamics: Controls and Management for Sustainable Ecosystem Functioning 142Eldor A. Paul, Alexandra Kravchenko, A. Stuart Grandy, and Sherri Morris6 Microbial Diversity in Soils of Agricultural Landscapes and its Relation to Ecosystem Function 186Thomas M. Schmidt and Clive Waldron7 Plant Community Dynamics in Agricultural and Successional Fields 216Katherine L. Gross, Sarah Emery, Adam S. Davis, Richard G. Smith, and Todd M.P. Robinson8 Arthropod Diversity and Pest Suppression in Agricultural Landscapes 257Douglas A. Landis and Stuart H. Gage9 Nitrogen Transfers and Transformations in Row-crop Ecosystems 289Neville Millar and G. Philip Robertson10 Simulating Crop Growth and Biogeochemical Fluxes in Response to Land Management using the SALUS Model 343Bruno Basso and Joe T. Ritchie11 Water Quality and Movement in Agricultural Landscapes 376Stephen K. Hamilton12 Mitigation of Greenhouse Gases in Agricultural Ecosystems 419Ilya Gelfand and G. Philip Robertson13 Farmer Decisions about Adopting Environmentally Beneficial Practices 459Scott M. Swinton, Natalie Rector, G. Philip Robertson, Christina B. Jolejole-Foreman, and Frank Lupi14 Acoustic Observations in Agricultural Landscapes 490Stuart H. Gage, Wooyeong Joo, Eric P. Kasten, Jordan Fox, and Subir Biswas15 Designing Cropping Systems for Ecosystem Services 512Sieglinde S. Snapp, Richard G. Smith, and G. Philip Robertson
