Ecology in Agriculture

Plant Responses to their Environment: L.E. Jackson and G. Koch, The Ecophysiology of Crops and their Wild Relatives. V.P. Gutshick, Photosynthesis, Growth Rate, and Biomass Allocation. A.G. Condon and A.E.Hall, Adaptation to Diverse Agricultural Environments: Genotypic Variation in Water Use Efficiency with Crop Series. C-G. Padilla, E. Fereres, and F. Orgaz, Productivity in Water-Limited Environments: Crop Responses and Management of Dryland Agricultural Systems. A.J. Bloom, Nitrogen as a Limiting Factor: Crop Acquisition of Ammonium and Nitrate. D.M. Eissenstat, Tradeoffs in Root Form and Function. Biotic Interactions and Processes: M.R. Finckh and M.S. Wolfe, The Use of Biodiversity to Restrict Plant Diseases and Some Consequences for Farmers and Society. D.K. Letourneau, Plant-Arthropod Interactions in Agroecosystems. M. Liebmann and E.R. Gallandt, Many Little Hammers: Ecological Approaches for Management of Crop-Weed Interactions. G.P. Robertson, Nitrogen Use Efficiency in Row-Crop Agriculture: Crop Nitrogen Use and Soil Nitrogen Loss. K.M. Scow, Interrelationships between Soil Microbial Communities and Carbon Flow in Agroecosystems. R. Leemans, Effects of Global change on Agricultural Land Use: Scaling Up from Physiological Processes to Ecosystem Dynamics.

Agricultural crops are prominent features of an increasing number of variously perturbed ecosystems and the landscapes occupied by these ecosystems. Yet the ecology of agricultural-dominated landscapes is only now receiving the scientific attention it has long deserved. This attention has been stimulated by the realization that all agriculture must become sustainable year after year while leaving nearby ecosystems unaffected.

Ecology in Agriculture focuses exclusively on the ecology of agricultural ecosystems. The book is divided into four major sections. An introduction establishes the unique ties between agricultural and ecological sciences. The second section describes the community ecology of these sorts of ecosystems, while the final section focuses on the processes that operate throughout these agricultural landscapes.

• Contains an ecological perspective on agricultural production and resource utilization
• Includes in-depth reviews of major issues in crop ecology by active researchers
• Covers a range of topics in agricultural ecophysiology, community ecology, and ecosystems ecology
• Provides examples of ecological approaches to solving problems in crop management and environmental quality

Advanced undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and researchers in ecology, agronomy, plant sciences, forestry and related agricultural disciplines, libraries