LTER: Organisms in the Agricultural Landscape

1987年，一项农业生态学长期生态研究项目启动，旨在研究美国中西部典型行作物生态系统的基本生态关系。该项目的最初目标是测试一个基本的长期假设，即基于种植系统中生态相互作用知识的农艺管理可以有效地取代基于化学品补贴的管理。同样的总体目标指导着今天的项目。为了验证这一假设，我们建立了一个实验场地，在那里，不同的种植制度，对应不同程度的农艺/生态干扰，来测试一系列的工作假设。工作假设是围绕养分可用性/保留，植物竞争和消费者（昆虫，病原体）动态等一般主题领域建立的。在最初的奖励期间，在实现短期目标方面取得了实质性进展，这些短期目标是建立一个具有长期潜力的安全农业研究场所，实施一个综合抽样计划，以解决生态学和农学方面的重要长期问题，最重要的是，测试和完善了最初的假设。在这个新的项目阶段，目标是将基于地块的研究扩展到区域景观，并解决七个基本的生态假设，这些假设对于理解现代农业的生态基础和提供维持未来农业生产所需的知识至关重要。

In 1987 a Long-Term Ecological Research Project in Agricultural Ecology was initiated to examine basic ecological relationships in row crop ecosystems typical of the U.S. Midwest. The project's original goal was to test the basic, long-term hypothesis that agronomic management based on knowledge of ecological interactions in cropping systems can effectively replace management based on chemical subsidies. The same overall goal guides the project today. In order to test this hypothesis an experimental site was established in which different cropping systems, corresponding to different levels of agronomic/ecological disturbance, are used to test a series of working hypotheses. Working hypotheses are built around the general topic areas of nutrient availability/ retention, plant competition, and consumer (insect, pathogen) dynamics. Over the initial award period substantial progress has been made towards meeting the short-term goals of establishing a secure agricultural research site with long-term potential, of putting in place an integrated sampling program to address important long-term questions in both ecology and agronomy, and most importantly, of testing and refining the initial hypotheses. In this new project period the aim is to extend plot-based research to the regional landscape and to address seven basic ecological hypotheses that are critical for understanding the ecological underpinnings of modern agriculture and for providing the knowledge needed to sustain future agricultural production.