LTER: Long-Term Ecological Research in Field Crop Ecosystems

9810220罗伯逊在全球范围内的农业活动是通过生物和化学管理实践相结合进行的。 自1987年以来，凯洛格生物站（KBS）长期生态研究计划一直在进行研究，重点是检验基于生态相互作用知识的农艺管理实践可以有效地取代基于化学补贴的管理这一假设。 检验这一一般假设的工作集中在美国中西部广泛使用的大田作物生态系统上。 KBS研究采用了一系列的网站，其中11个不同的种植系统和演替群落已建立代表不同层次和类型的生态干扰。 在这一系列的网站，工作假设正在测试土壤微生物群落，昆虫消费者的动态，养分供应和植物群落动态的一般领域。最近的工作已经导致了基于生物的农业系统的发展，产生了可接受的作物产量。 KBS网站记录了丰富的各种类群的变化，似乎是重要的中耕作物功能和农业系统的生态系统级属性。 在大田作物生态系统的关键关系方面，一般生态学的理解已经得到了推进。 除了继续这些努力外，拟议的工作将评估农业做法在比个别领域更大的规模上对整个流域生态地球化学过程动态的影响。 还将努力纳入社会组成部分，以评估人类决策在农业生态系统中发生的生态过程中发挥关键作用的程度。 最后，将对KBS站点的工作成果进行区域化，以便对整个中北部地区气候与生产力之间的相互作用有一个总体了解。

9810220RobertsonAgricultural activities worldwide are carried out through a combination of biological and chemical management practices. The Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) Long-Term Ecological Research program has been conducting research since 1987 focusing on testing the hypothesis that agronomic management practices based on knowledge of ecological interactions can effectively replace management based on chemical subsidies. Work to test this general hypothesis is focused on field-crop ecosystems that are used extensively throughout the US Midwest. KBS research employs a series of sites where 11 different cropping systems and successional communities have been established to represent different levels and types of ecological disturbance. Within this series of sites, working hypotheses are being tested in general areas of soil microbial communities, the dynamics of insect consumers, nutrient availability, and plant community dynamics. Recent work has led to development of biologically based agricultural systems that produce acceptable crop yields. The KBS site has documented changes in abundance of various taxa that appear to be important in row-crop function and in ecosystem-level attributes of agricultural systems. General ecological understanding has been advanced in key relationships in field-crop ecosystems. In addition to continuing these efforts, proposed work will evaluate the effects of agricultural practices at scales larger than individual fields on the dynamics of biogeochemical processes in entire watersheds. Efforts will also be developed to incorporate a social component to evaluate the degree to which human decision making plays critical roles in the ecological processes occurring in agricultural ecosystems. Finally, the results of efforts at the KBS site will be regionalized to develop a general understanding of the interactions between climate and productivity across the entire North Central Region.