Understanding resilience in agroecosystems: landscapes in transition

粮食、纤维和生物燃料生产是土壤提供的核心生态系统服务之一。然而，土壤也有助于水的净化，碳固存，生物多样性的栖息地和养分循环。目前正在促进农业集约化，认为这是为不断增长的全球人口增加粮食产量的关键。然而，集约化也与广泛宣传的环境问题有关，这些问题涉及水质和水量、温室气体排放和生物多样性减少。集约化最重要的问题之一是对变化的弹性降低。不幸的是，我们没有足够的信息来描述关键的土壤生态系统服务的变化，特别是在加拿大农业生态系统的弹性。这种信息的缺乏是可持续农业的一个主要障碍：土壤如何应对由于集约化而引起的土地利用变化，或全球气候变化下温度和降水模式的变化？特别是，整个农业景观中土壤功能的净变化可能是什么？**为了量化土壤在农业生态系统中的恢复力，我们首先需要量化土壤在不同土地利用下在不同景观位置提供的基线生态系统服务。哪些服务可以量化？不同的土地用途有哪些不同？哪些不是？通过将土壤性质和功能的敏感测量与土地利用和地形联系起来，我们能否确定哪些指数在未来变化中最容易受到土地利用变化的影响（最不具弹性）？最终，我们能否确定一个短期的土壤测试长期的弹性？反过来，我们能否确定土壤生态系统服务的效益和成本，以量化农业景观的恢复力和可持续性？**在这个项目中，我们将研究一套新的生态区和土地利用梯度的土壤变化指数来回答这些问题。此外，通过查看这些指数在地形梯度，我们将确定如何在这些丘陵景观不同的位置可能会对变化作出反应。

Food, fiber, and biofuel production is one of the core ecosystem services provided by soils. However, soils also contribute to water purification, carbon sequestration, habitat for biodiversity, and nutrient cycling. Intensification of agriculture is being promoted as essential to increase food production for a growing global population. However, intensification has also been linked to widely publicized environmental issues surrounding water quality and quantity, greenhouse gas emissions, and reduced biodiversity. Among the most significant problems with intensification is reduced resiliency to change. Unfortunately, we do not have sufficient information to characterize the resiliency of key soil ecosystem services to change, particularly in Canadian agro-ecosystems. This lack of information presents a major obstacle to sustainable agriculture: How might soils respond to either a change in land use due to intensification, or to a change in temperature and precipitation patterns under global climate change? In particular, what might the net change in soil function be across the agricultural landscape?**To quantify soil's resilience in agro-ecosystems, we first need to quantify the baseline ecosystem services that soils provide under different land uses in different landscape positions. What services can be readily quantified? Which ones differ under different land uses? Which ones do not? By linking sensitive measurements of soil properties and function to land use and landform, can we determine which indices are most vulnerable (least resilient) to land use change under future change? Ultimately, can we identify a short-term soil test for long-term resilience? In turn, can we determine the benefits and costs of soil ecosystem services to quantify resilience and sustainability of agricultural landscapes?**In this project, we will look at a suite of novel indices of soil change across ecotonal and land use gradients to answer these questions. Furthermore, by looking at these indices across topographic gradient, we will determine how different positions in these hummocky landscapes might respond to change.****