LTER: Organisms in the Agricultural Landscape

1987年，启动了农业生态学长期生态研究项目，以研究美国中西部典型的行作物生态系统中的基本生态关系。该项目的最初目标是检验一个基本的长期假设，即基于种植系统生态相互作用知识的农艺管理可以有效地取代基于化学补贴的管理。今天，同样的总体目标指导着该项目。为了验证这一假说，建立了一个试验点，采用不同的种植制度，对应于不同程度的农艺/生态干扰，来检验一系列工作假说。工作假说是围绕营养可获得性/保留性、植物竞争和消费者(昆虫、病原体)动态等一般主题领域建立的。在最初的获奖期内，在实现短期目标方面取得了实质性进展，这些目标包括建立一个具有长期潜力的安全农业研究场地，建立一个综合采样计划来解决生态学和农学中的重要长期问题，以及最重要的是，测试和完善初始假设。在这个新的项目期，目的是将基于地块的研究扩展到区域景观，并解决七个基本的生态假设，这些假设对于理解现代农业的生态基础和提供维持未来农业生产所需的知识至关重要。

In 1987 a Long-Term Ecological Research Project in Agricultural Ecology was initiated to examine basic ecological relationships in row crop ecosystems typical of the U.S. Midwest. The project's original goal was to test the basic, long-term hypothesis that agronomic management based on knowledge of ecological interactions in cropping systems can effectively replace management based on chemical subsidies. The same overall goal guides the project today. In order to test this hypothesis an experimental site was established in which different cropping systems, corresponding to different levels of agronomic/ecological disturbance, are used to test a series of working hypotheses. Working hypotheses are built around the general topic areas of nutrient availability/ retention, plant competition, and consumer (insect, pathogen) dynamics. Over the initial award period substantial progress has been made towards meeting the short-term goals of establishing a secure agricultural research site with long-term potential, of putting in place an integrated sampling program to address important long-term questions in both ecology and agronomy, and most importantly, of testing and refining the initial hypotheses. In this new project period the aim is to extend plot-based research to the regional landscape and to address seven basic ecological hypotheses that are critical for understanding the ecological underpinnings of modern agriculture and for providing the knowledge needed to sustain future agricultural production.