2017 ESA Annual Meeting (August 6 -- 11)

OOS 43-9 - Applications of network research in agriculture

Thursday, August 10, 2017: 4:20 PM
Portland Blrm 258, Oregon Convention Center
Sarina Macfadyen, CSIRO, David Bohan, INRA, France, Katherina Ng, ANU, Australia and Andrew Kalyebi, National Crops Resources Research Institute, Uganda; Mikocheni Agricultural Research Institute, Tanzania, United Republic of
Background/Question/Methods

Network approaches have provided some very useful insights into how the structure of ecological communities change between habitats, and in some cases how this impacts ecosystem services in agricultural systems. Less attention has been paid to predicting the impact of management actions that may change the spatial and temporal distribution of resources for highly mobile invertebrate species in the ecosystem. In agricultural landscapes this is especially problematic as resources used by these species can change dramatically across time, as a result of management decisions (e.g. planting and harvesting crops). Furthermore, there can be trade-offs in how species use resources that impact ecosystem service delivery.

Results/Conclusions

We will illustrate how network approaches could be useful for predicating change at the community-level in agricultural landscapes in a variety of contexts. However, for his to be achieved management decisions, trade-offs, and species movement between habitats need to be explicitly incorporated into network studies.