The Pollinators in Agricultural Ecosystems

Insect pollinators in corn and soybean agricultural fields

Iowa’s landscape is dominated by row crop agriculture with the majority of acres being in corn and soybean production, and as a result is spatially uniform and functionally homogenized. In landscapes dominated by agriculture, such as those found in Iowa, the availability of mass flowering crop species show strong positive effects on the density of generalist, native pollinators. While soybean, ...

Designing Agricultural Ecosystems for the Humid Tropics

Warmth, moisture, and constancy are the environmental factors responsible for the potentially high productivity of the humid tropical lowlands. Ironically, they are also the biome’s greatest ecological constraints to agriculture. Chemical weathering increases with temperature and is three to six times faster in the tropics than in the temperate zone (125, 250). This frequently leads to the deve...

Mitigation of Greenhouse Gases in Agricultural Ecosystems

Modern cropping systems use substantial amounts of fossil energy in the form of fertilizers, pesticides, and fuel for field operations. An important environmental consequence of this use is the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to the atmosphere, from sources both direct and indirect. Direct sources include fossil fuel used for tillage and other field operations as well as GHGs produced and c...

Plant viruses: exploiting agricultural and natural ecosystems.

Biodiversity and the Functioning of Selected Terrestrial Ecosystems: Agricultural Systems

Contents 1. Introduction – biodiversity in agricultural ecosystems 2. Planned diversity and the functioning of agricultural systems 2.1. Intraspecific diversity 2.2. Species diversity 2.3. Habitat and landscape diversity 3. Unplanned diversity and the functioning of agricultural systems. 3.1. Pollination services 3.2. Soil processes 3.3. Natural pest control 4. Conclusions Bibliography Biograph...