Résumé :
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"The KBS Long-term Ecological Research Program, more than any other place on the planet, has explored the role of agricultural systems in complex landscapes and a changing global system. The Ecology of Agricultural Landscapes tells the multidimensional story of those systems, demonstrating both the value of long-term studies and the importance of a systems perspective in understanding them." - Pamela Matson, Senior Fellow, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.
For some time, evidence has been mounting to suggest that intensive row-crop agriculture as practiced in developed countries may not be environmentally sustainable, with increasing concerns arising in regard to climate change, implications for water quantity and quality, and soil degradation. In this latest volume of the Long Term Ecological Research Network series, editors Stephen K. Hamilton, Julie E. Doll, and G. Philip Robertson synthesize two decades of research on the sustainability of temperate, row-crop ecosystems of the Midwestern United States. The Ecology of Agricultural Landscapes : Long-Term Research on the Path to Sustainability is strucured on a foundation of large-scale field experiments that explore alternatives to conventional, chemical-intensive agriculture. Contrary of the majority of research projects on the topic, 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. A comprehensive inquiry into the ecology of alternative cropping system, Ecology of Agricultural Landscapes also identifies essential steps on the path to a sustainable future. The definitive volume of research on the ecology of row-crop agriculture in the Midwest, the book is a valuable resource for researchers, scholars, and professionals in the field of agricultural science.
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