BE/CNH: Biocomplexity of Integrated Perennial-Annual Agroecosystems

农业生态系统是地球上人类和自然系统中最复杂和最错综复杂的耦合系统。 在全球范围内，密集型粮食生产的后果与生物物理和人类系统的健康和稳定密切相关。 在美国中西部，一年生作物几乎完全取代了以多年生植物为主的植被，对维持人类和生物物理系统功能和稳定的环境服务产生了重大影响。 通过将多年生植被重新引入农业景观，这些趋势可以逆转的可能性被两个平行的过程所强调：（1）农业政策越来越重视促进包括多年生植物的保护措施，以及（2）越来越多的实地和模拟研究证据表明，增加多年生植被可能会显着提高生态和社会经济效益。 然而，在人类和生物物理系统内的复杂原因和反馈方面，却严重缺乏基本科学知识，而这些原因和反馈将最终决定常年-每年系统中这些变化的程度和方向。 该项目将整合流域规模的实地实验与建模模拟，以评估耦合的生态和社会经济动态和权衡与整合多年生植被在农业生态系统为主的一年生作物在中西部。 该项目将在爱荷华州中部核桃溪流域的尼尔·史密斯国家野生动物保护区进行，其中约三分之一的流域已被转换为原生草原植被，产生农业用地和原生草原植被的马赛克景观，为这项研究提供了理想的背景。 这项研究的核心假设是，在农业主导的景观中，多年生植物覆盖的战略位置、数量和类型将对生物物理功能产生不成比例的影响（即，水质和流量，生物多样性）和社会经济（即，生活质量、经济和社会稳定）系统。 该项目的主要目标是根据基线经济和生物物理数据制定一个环境效率指数，以便能够评估一年生-多年生植物配置对比鲜明的不同景观设计优化生态系统功能和社会经济效益的程度。 该项目将包括参数化，验证，并明确地将生物物理和经济模型联系起来，这些模型将用于评估各种常年性气候变化的环境效益和经济成本，该项目将通过开发评估农业景观中生物复杂性的新方法，并通过提供有助于实施积极环境政策的知识，对科学和社会产生重大影响。和社会经济变化。 该项目将产生一个原型决策工具，可供一系列政府机构和民间社会组织用于指导管理和决策，从而为评估其他集约管理景观的利弊提供科学依据。 它将建立一个全面的社会成本和效益的科学认识，将多年生植被纳入每年占主导地位的农业系统和复杂的动态目前影响采用和支付的保护做法，需要更有效的政策制定。 该项目将通过为本科生和研究生提供教育机会，以及通过避难所学习中心开展的公共教育和外联活动，提高整个社会对集中管理系统的生物复杂性和替代性流域设计方案的认识，这些活动将针对广泛的利益相关者（例如，政策制定者、学生、农民等）。 通过该项目开发的结果和方法将广泛应用于评估替代集约管理景观的权衡，并指导美国和国外其他地区的管理和政策决策。 该项目得到了2005财政年度环境中生物复杂性特别竞赛的支持，该竞赛侧重于自然和人类系统耦合的动力学。

Agroecosystems are among the most complex and intricately coupled sets of human and natural systems on Earth. On a global scale, the consequence of intensive food production is closely linked to the health and stability of both biophysical and human systems. In the Midwestern U.S., the almost-complete replacement of perennial-dominated vegetation by annual crops has significantly impacted environmental services that maintain function and stability of both the human and biophysical systems. The possibility that these trends can be reversed through the re-introduction of perennial vegetation into agricultural landscapes is underscored by two parallel processes: (1) the increasing emphasis of agricultural policies on promoting conservation practices that incorporate perennial plants, and (2) increasing evidence from field and modeling studies suggesting that increasing perennial cover may significantly enhance both ecological and socioeconomic benefits. Fundamental scientific knowledge is sorely lacking, however, with respect to the complex causes and feedbacks within the human and biophysical systems that will ultimately determine the degree and direction of these changes in perennial-annual systems. This project will integrate a watershed-scale field experiment with modeling simulations to assess coupled ecological and socioeconomic dynamics and trade-offs associated with integrating perennial vegetation in agroecosystems dominated by annual crops in the Midwest. The project will be conducted at the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge in the Walnut Creek watershed in central Iowa, where approximately one-third of the watershed has been converted to native prairie vegetation, producing a mosaic landscape of agricultural lands and native prairie vegetation that provides an ideal context for this research. The core hypothesis for this research is that strategic locations, amounts, and types of perennial plant cover within agriculturally-dominated landscapes will have a disproportionate effect on the functioning of the biophysical (i.e., water quality and flow, biodiversity) and socioeconomic (i.e., quality of life, economic and social stability) systems. The main objective of this project is to develop an environmental-efficiency index derived from baseline economic and biophysical data that will enable assessment of the extent to which different landscape designs having contrasting annual-perennial plant configurations optimize ecosystem functioning and socioeconomic benefits. This project will include parameterizing, validating, and explicitly linking biophysical and economic models that will be used to assess the environmental benefits and economic costs of various perennial-annual watershed scenarios.This project will have significant impacts on science and society by developing novel approaches to assessing biocomplexity in agricultural landscapes and by providing knowledge that will contribute to policies aimed at effecting positive environmental and socioeconomic change. The project will result in a prototypic decision-making tool that can be applied by a range of governmental agencies and civil society organizations to guide management and policy decisions, thereby offering a scientific basis for assessing trade-offs of alternative intensively managed landscapes. It will establish a scientific understanding of the full societal costs and benefits of integrating perennial vegetation into annually dominated agricultural systems and of the complex dynamics currently influencing adoption and payments of conservation practices that is needed for more effective policy formulation. The project will enhance knowledge of biocomplexity of intensively managed systems and alternative watershed design options within society as a whole by providing educational opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students as well as through public education and outreach activities conducted through the refuge's learning center that will target a wide range of stakeholders (e.g., policy makers, school children, farmers, etc.). The results and approach developed through this project will have broad applications to assessing trade-offs of alternative intensively managed landscapes and guiding management and policy decisions in other regions in the U.S. and abroad. This project is supported by an award resulting from the FY 2005 special competition in Biocomplexity in the Environment focusing on the Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems.