REU: LTER: Organisms in the Agricultural Landscape

该项目将启动一项长期综合研究， 农业生态系统中生物体之间的相互作用。 的 总体目标是检验管理基于以下假设： 生态概念可以有效地取代依赖 化学品补贴在生产层面的农艺。 通过征收 在一系列试验田上的管理处理范围 具体的假设将被测试，从一般的 假设营养补贴可以最大限度地减少， 操纵植物和微生物的相互作用;除草剂补贴 可以通过操纵作物-杂草相互作用来最小化; 农药补贴可以通过操纵植物- 昆虫-病原体-脊椎动物相互作用。 初步的实验性治疗旨在改变 从根本上控制人口水平的相互作用 农业系统。 这将允许测试假设 关于种群之间的长期相互作用如何影响系统- 广泛的属性，如养分的可用性，草食性和 致病性、植物竞争和系统碳 分配和养分/农药产出。 治疗将 包括四个主要物种级别和两个管理级别 嵌套在每一个：传统的玉米/大豆种植 （犁板犁与免耕），有机基，低投入 玉米/大豆/覆盖栽培（最低化学投入vs.zero 化学输入）;短轮伐期杨树（木本生物量） 种植（地上分配与地下分配）; 和原生演替植被（历史耕作与 从未耕种过）。 这些治疗方法将在 同样的一般领域，这些系统的发展将是 无限期地跟着。 其他地区的选定卫星站点 此外，亦会研究部分景观， 在以后各阶段处理业务一级问题的基础 该项目 许多人会断言现代农业的未来 需要对生态学有基本的、机制层面的理解， 生产水平的种植系统。 这项奋进需要一个 在相关地点采取多学科的长期方法 到北美农学，它可以提供后勤保障， 支助和行政基础设施，以促进这类活动 重大的研究工作。 这项研究的项目小组是优秀的， 广泛和适当的专业知识， 过去的业绩记录。 机构设施包括： 在主校区和凯洛格生物学院都很优秀 车站（KBS）现场。 机构承诺 该项目是实质性的，无论是直接支助还是实物支助。 预计该项目将迅速建立 本身作为一个宝贵的合作者在现存的家庭， 相关项目，并将提供一套指导性的 比较未管理的自然生态系统的工作。 大 一些其他相关的研究项目将继续 在KBS进行，将受益于并提供力量 对于这项新工作。 建议将这一新的、连续五年的奖项 按要求进行。

This project will initiate a long-term integrated study of interactions among organisms in agricultural ecosystems. The general goal is to test the hypothesis that management based on ecological concepts can effectively substitute for reliance on chemical subsidies in production-level agronomy. By imposing a range of management treatments on a series of experimental plots specific hypotheses will be tested that follow from the general hypothesis that nutrient subsidies can be minimized by manipulating plant-microbe interactions; that herbicide subsidies can be minimized by manipulating crop-weed interactions; and that pesticide subsidies can be minimized by manipulating plant- insect-pathogen-vertebrate interactions. Primary experimental treatments are designed to alter radically the controls on population-level interactions in agronomic systems. This will allow the testing of hypotheses about how long-term interactions among populations affect system- wide attributes such as nutrient availability, herbivory and pathogenesis, plant competition, and systemswide carbon allocation and nutrient/pesticide outputs. Treatments will include four main species-levels with two management levels nested within each: conventional corn/soybean cultivation (moldboard plowed vs. no-till), organic-based, low-input corn/soybean/cover cultivation (minimum chemical input vs.zero chemical input); short-rotation Populus (woody biomass) cultivation (above ground allocation vs. belowground allocation); and native successional vegetation (historically-tilled vs. never-tilled). These treatments will be established within the same general area, and the development of these systems will be followed indefinitely. Selected satellite sites in other portions of the landscape will also be examined to formulate a basis for addressing landscape-level questions in later phases of the project. Many would assert that the future of modern agriculture demands a basic, mechanism-level understanding of the ecology of production-level cropping systems. This endeavor requires a multidisciplinary, long-term approach at a site that is relevant to North American agronomy and that can provide the logistical support and administrative infrastructure to facilitate this type of major research effort. The project team for this research is excellent comprising a broad and appropriate array of expertise and very productive records of past performance. Institutional facilities are excellent at both the main campus and at the Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) field site. Institutional commitment to the project is substantial, both as direct support and in kind. It is expected that this project will rapidly establish itself as an invaluable collaborator within the extant family of related projects and that it will provide an instructive suite of comparisons for work on unmanaged, natural ecosystems. A large number of other related research projects will continue to be conducted at the KBS and will both benefit from and lend strength to this new work. It is recommended that this new, five-year continuing award be made as requested.