The Ecology of Agricultural Landscapes

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. The Ecology of Agricultural Landscapes synthesizes two decades of research on the sustainability of temperate, row-crop ecosystems of the Midwestern United States. The overarching hypothesis guiding The Ecology of Agricultural Landscapes 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 The Ecology of Agricultural Landscapes, 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. The Ecology of Agricultural Landscapes synthesizes this comprehensive inquiry into the ecology of alternative cropping systems, identifying future steps needed on the path to sustainability.

1. Conceptual and Experimental Approaches to Long-term Ecological Research at the Kellogg Biological Station / G. Philip Robertson and Stephen K. Hamilton   1
2. Farming for Ecosystem Services: An Ecological Approach to Production Agriculture / G. Philip Robertson, Katherine L. Gross, Stephen K. Hamilton, Douglas A. Landis, Thomas M. Schmidt, Sieglinde S. Snapp, and Scott M. Swinton   44
3. Economic Value of Ecosystem Services from Agriculture / Scott M. Swinton, Christina B. Jolejole-Foreman, Frank Lupi, Shan Ma, Wei Zhang and Huilan Chen   76
4. A Crop Stress Index to Predict Climatic Effects on Row-crop Agriculture in the U.S. North Central Region / Stuart H. Gage, Julie E. Doll, and Gene R. Safir   110
5. Soil Organic Matter Dynamics: Controls and Management for Sustainable Ecosystem Functioning / Eldor A. Paul, Alexandra Kravchenko, A. Stuart Grandy, and Sherri Morris   142
6. Microbial Diversity in Soils of Agricultural Landscapes and its Relation to Ecosystem Function / Thomas M. Schmidt and Clive Waldron   186
7. Plant Community Dynamics in Agricultural and Successional Fields / Katherine L. Gross, Sarah Emery, Adam S. Davis, Richard G. Smith, and Todd M.P. Robinson   216
8. Arthropod Diversity and Pest Suppression in Agricultural Landscapes / Douglas A. Landis and Stuart H. Gage   257
9. Nitrogen Transfers and Transformations in Row-crop Ecosystems / Neville Millar and G. Philip Robertson   289
10. Simulating Crop Growth and Biogeochemical Fluxes in Response to Land Management using the SALUS Model / Bruno Basso and Joe T. Ritchie   343
11. Water Quality and Movement in Agricultural Landscapes / Stephen K. Hamilton   376
12. Mitigation of Greenhouse Gases in Agricultural Ecosystems / Ilya Gelfand and G. Philip Robertson   419
13. Farmer Decisions about Adopting Environmentally Beneficial Practices / Scott M. Swinton, Natalie Rector, G. Philip Robertson, Christina B. Jolejole-Foreman, and Frank Lupi   459
14. Acoustic Observations in Agricultural Landscapes / Stuart H. Gage, Wooyeong Joo, Eric P. Kasten, Jordan Fox, and Subir Biswas   490
15. Designing Cropping Systems for Ecosystem Services / Sieglinde S. Snapp, Richard G. Smith, and G. Philip Robertson   512