Organizer:
Elizabeth Boughton
Co-organizers:
Nick Haddad
and
Grégory Sonnier
Biodiversity is an important component of sustainable and resilient agroecosystems. Biodiversity provides vital services to agroecosystem including pollination, pest suppression, decomposition, and resilience. However, biodiversity can also provide disservices to agroecosystem including crop damage, pathogens, and competition for resources. In addition, there are important feedbacks from agriculture to biodiversity, with agroecosystem landscape configuration and field-scale management affecting the maintenance of biodiversity. The emerging framework of sustainable intensification, which seeks to increase production while maintaining or reducing adverse environmental impacts of agriculture, will require broad understanding of the relationship of multiple elements of biodiversity to agricultural production, ecosystem processes, and rural prosperity across spatial and temporal scales. The goal of this organized session is to present research on multiple elements of biodiversity in agriculture in the context of sustainable intensification, in both row crops and grazing land agroecosystems. Unifying science questions include: 1) Is the importance of managing biodiversity in sustainable agroecosystems primarily related to enhancing agricultural production, or are there other important agroecosystem conservation goals? 2) How common are win-win solutions for biodiversity and agricultural production? 3) What components of biodiversity typically win or lose in agroecosystems?
Although much work has been conducted on the relationship of biodiversity to agriculture, coordinated agroecosystem research, across a range of agroecosystems, is needed to identify general patterns. This session will also introduce the USDA’s Long-Term Agroecosystem Research Network (LTAR) as an important platform for coordinated agroecosystem research on biodiversity. Many at ESA will be familiar with the Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) network. LTAR is composed of 18 locations distributed across the contiguous United States spanning a range of geographic and climatic gradients, including annual row crops, grazing lands, and integrated crop and grazing systems working together to address national and local agricultural priorities and advance the sustainable intensification of U.S. agriculture. Although by definition they are in more applied settings than LTER, LTAR has potential to inform ecological integrity and resilience in working landscapes.
How does plant diversity mediate productivity response to variation in precipitation and temperature in grazinglands?
Grégory Sonnier, Archbold Biological Station;
Shishir Paudel, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens;
Philip A. Fay, USDA, Agricultural Research Service;
Lauren M. Porensky, USDA-ARS;
David J. Augustine, USDA-ARS;
Raoul K. Boughton, University of Florida;
Pat Clark, USDA-ARS;
Lauren L. Sullivan, University of Missouri;
Elizabeth Boughton, Archbold Biological Station
Biodiversity in Iowa agroecosystems: Win, lose, or draw?
Lisa Schulte Moore, Iowa State University;
Jordan Giese, Iowa State University;
Matt Liebman, Iowa State University;
Jarad B. Niemi, Iowa State University;
Matthew E. O'Neal, Iowa State University;
Matthew D. Stephenson, Iowa State University