OPUS: Ecology and Complexity of the Coffee Farm

世界上大部分土地现在都用于农业，农业和自然系统之间的相互作用对维持两者的发展越来越重要。例如，自然系统提供了授粉和控制作物害虫的生物，农场可以支持与农业共存的本地物种的多样性。然而，这种互利在很大程度上取决于农场的管理方式：高度集约化的农业可能不可持续，而从长远来看，集约化程度较低的方法可能产出更多。咖啡农场是一个研究如何管理农场以实现生态可持续发展的模式系统，该项目将支持世界两家公司20年研究的综合。他是中美洲咖啡种植园生物多样性、生态系统功能和生物之间复杂相互作用的主要研究人员。主要的科学成果将是一本关于咖啡农业生态学的书，面向学生，也为更资深的科学家和管理人员提供信息。该项目对改善农业和维护环境的广泛影响是显而易见的。研究人员将进一步加强这些影响，他们将在一个易于获取的网站上发布有插图的指南，并与一位墨西哥同事合作制作具有教育意义的交互式模拟模型，以帮助农民、学生和其他利益相关者以咖啡种植园为模型了解农业生态系统。

Much of the world's land is now used for agriculture and the interactions between agricultural and natural systems is increasingly important to sustaining both. For example, natural systems provide organisms that pollinate and control pests on crops, and farms can support a diversity of native species that co-exist with agriculture. However, this mutual benefit depends strongly on how farms are managed: highly intensive agriculture may not be sustainable, whereas less intensive methods may, in the long run, yield more. Coffee farms are a model system in which to study how farms can be managed to be ecologically sustainable, and this project will support a synthesis of two decades of study by two of the world?s leading researchers on biodiversity, ecosystem function, and complex interactions between organisms in coffee plantations in Central America. The main scientific result will be a book on the agroecology of coffee aimed at students and also informative to more senior scientists and managers.The broader impacts of this project for improving agriculture and maintaining the environment are manifest. The researchers will further enhance these impacts by posting illustrated guides on a website for easy access, and collaborating with a Mexican colleague to produce educational, interactive, simulation models to help farmers, students, and other stake holders to understand agroecosystems using coffee plantations as a model.