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Strategies for research and management in reduced-input agroecosystems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2009

Paul F. Hendrix
Paul F. Hendrix
Affiliation:
Assistant Research Ecologist, Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602.
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Abstract

Developing reduced-input agroecosystems is a challenge to researchers and practitioners in a number of disciplines. In particular, because of the complexity of managerial inputs, understanding the effects of decreases in levels of one or several inputs presents a difficult experimental problem. Moderate reductionism is proposed as an appropriate hierarchical analysis, which first characterizes system level behavior and then explains it in terms of system components and their interactions. An example is given using reduced nitrogen fertilizer inputs; higher nitrogen use efficiency at lower levels of input is explained by increased nutrient recycling between soil and plant subsystems. Transition from conventional to reduced-input management involves changes in both economic and ecological properties of agroecosystems. Biological, chemical and physical changes, including increased species diversity, tighter nutrient recycling, and longer-term perennial effects, may parallel ecological succession. Hypothetical trends for several such changes are discussed.

Keywords

ecologyN fertilizerreduced inputreductionismproductivityecosystemsmanagerial complexity
Type
Articles
Information
American Journal of Alternative Agriculture , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , Fall 1987 , pp. 166 - 172
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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