CNH-L: The Influence of Conflicting Policies and Supply-Chain Pressures on Farmers' Decisions and Tradeoffs with Respect to Biodiversity, Profitability, and Sustainability

世纪的一个重大挑战是增加粮食生产，以满足世界人民的需求，同时确保长期的经济和生态可持续性。 侧重于支持生物多样性以提供基本生态系统服务的耕作方法可在应对这一挑战方面发挥重要作用，同时减轻严重依赖不可再生投入的集约耕作方法的有害影响。 调查人员将把他们的研究重点放在生菜农民谁在他们的做法，支持生物多样性沿着加州，全国最多产的农业地区之一的中央海岸使用不同。 研究人员将对这些农民进行深入访谈和焦点小组，以发现他们如何以及为什么采取或不采取多样化做法。 对其农场进行的生态研究将评估鸟类和土壤微生物的生物多样性，并量化这些生物提供的关键生态系统服务，包括保持土壤肥力、加强水源保护和减少食源性病原体的传播。 一系列社会经济方法，包括定量调查和农场层面的成本和回报研究，将研究生物多样性和生态系统服务如何影响农场利润，监管合规性，以及未来是否使用多样化实践的决定。 这些数据将被整合，以构建一个马尔可夫决策过程模型的耦合自然-人类系统，并评估政策的情况下，可能会影响采用率的具体耕作方法。 虽然集中在加州的中部海岸，在那里可以很容易地观察到历史上密集型农业生产的生态和社会成本，通过这项研究获得的发现和见解将在美国和其他国家具有重要意义。 该项目由美国国家科学基金会自然与人类系统耦合动力学（CNH）项目资助，旨在研究政策和市场对农民经营决策的影响，这些决策对农田生物多样性及其提供的生态系统服务的影响，以及这些生态系统服务如何影响农业生产力、盈利能力和可持续性。 该项目将提供有关农业保护激励计划和供应链如何共同影响农民使用可增加生物多样性的耕作方法的能力和意愿的新信息和见解。 该项目将确定这种耕作方式如何影响鸟类，土壤微生物及其提供的重要服务。 基于社会经济和生态方法的研究结果将被整合，以模拟农民如何处理相互冲突的要求，并确定他们的选择的后果。 该项目将为博士后研究人员、研究生和本科生提供从事科学研究的教育和培训机会，其中许多人属于科学、技术、工程和数学领域代表性不足的群体。 该项目还将开发信息图表和概况介绍，并为农民、消费者、政策制定者和公众举办社区活动、研讨会和其他形式的外联活动。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

A grand challenge of the 21st century is to increase food production to meet the needs of the world's people while ensuring long-term economic and ecological sustainability. Farming methods that focus on supporting biodiversity to produce essential ecosystem services may play an important role in addressing this challenge while lessening the harmful effects of intensive farming methods that rely heavily on non-renewable inputs. The investigators will focus their research on lettuce farmers who vary in their use of practices that support biodiversity along the central coast of California, one of the nation's most productive agricultural regions. The researchers will employ in-depth interviews and focus groups with these farmers to discover how and why they do or do not adopt diversification practices. Ecological studies of their farms will assess bird and soil microbial biodiversity and will quantify key ecosystem services provided by these organisms including the maintenance of soil fertility, enhancement of water conservation, and reduction of the spread of foodborne pathogens. A range of socioeconomic methods including a quantitative survey and a farm-level cost-and-return study will examine how biodiversity and ecosystem services affect farm profits, regulatory compliance, and decisions about whether to use diversification practices in the future. These data will be integrated to construct a Markov decision-process model of the coupled natural-human system and to assess policy scenarios that may influence adoption rates of specific farming practices. Although focused on the central coast of California, where the ecological and social costs of historically intensive agricultural production can be readily observed, findings and insights obtained through this research will have important implications in the U.S. and other nations for regions facing similar challenges related to intensive agricultural production. This project is supported by the NSF Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNH) Program.This interdisciplinary research project will study the influence of policies and markets on farmers' management decisions, the effects of these decisions on farmland biodiversity and the ecosystem services it provides, and how these ecosystem services affect farm productivity, profitability, and sustainability. This project will provide new information and insights regarding how agricultural conservation incentive programs and supply chains jointly affect the ability and willingness of farmers to use farming practices that can increase biodiversity. The project will identify how such farming practices affect birds, soil microbes, and the vital services they provide. Findings based on socioeconomic and ecological approaches will be integrated to model how farmers navigate conflicting requirements and to identify the consequences of their choices. The project will provide education and training opportunities to engage in scientific research for post-doctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate students, many of whom are members of groups underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The project also will develop infographics and fact sheets as well as conduct community events, workshops, and other forms of outreach for farmers, consumers, policy makers, and the public.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.