OPUS: Ecology and Complexity of the Coffee Farm

OPUS：咖啡农场的生态和复杂性

• 批准号: 1144923
• 负责人: Ivette Perfecto
• 金额: $ 17万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-02-15 至 2016-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1144923&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: OPUS; Ecology; Complexity; Coffee; Farm

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.

世界上大部分土地现在用于农业，农业和自然系统之间的相互作用对维持两者越来越重要。 例如，自然系统提供了授粉和控制作物害虫的生物体，农场可以支持与农业共存的多种本地物种。 然而，这种互利在很大程度上取决于如何管理农场：高度集约的农业可能无法持续，而从长远来看，集约程度较低的方法可能产量更高。 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型系统，该项目将支持世界上两个国家20年研究的综合。在生物多样性、生态系统功能和中美洲咖啡种植园中生物之间复杂的相互作用方面， 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，也为更高级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。 研究人员将通过在网站上发布图文并茂的指南来进一步增强这些影响，并与墨西哥同事合作制作教育，互动，模拟模型，以帮助农民，学生和其他利益相关者了解以咖啡种植园为模型的农业生态系统。