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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Regenerative Agriculture Effects On Invertebrate And Bird Communities And Insect-Provided Ecosystem Services, Alex Michels
Regenerative Agriculture Effects On Invertebrate And Bird Communities And Insect-Provided Ecosystem Services, Alex Michels
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Conventional agricultural practices can have unintended consequences on the environment and wildlife. Insects and birds are declining at rapid rates around the world, and the current conventional agricultural paradigm is a major driver through habitat loss and the intensification of production. Invertebrates in agroecosystems provide services to both farmers and the rest of society. Regenerative systems may promote the functioning of an agroecosystem by influencing invertebrate abundance, diversity, and ecosystem services and mitigate bird and insect declines through conservation practices that increase soil health, reduce disturbances, and increase biological diversity. Here I address knowledge gaps of the effects of regenerative …
Examining Biodiversity Metrics And The Utility Of Dna Barcoding In The Northern Great Plains, Sarah Herzog
Examining Biodiversity Metrics And The Utility Of Dna Barcoding In The Northern Great Plains, Sarah Herzog
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Due to heavy threats to remaining global floral and faunal diversity, it is imperative we can identify species and quantify ecosystem health to find best practices for land management and conservation. The tallgrass prairies of the Northern Great Plains are one example of a heavily imperiled ecosystem. The tallgrass prairies have been reduced to less one percent of their historical extent and are facing continued loss. Genetic approaches and evolutionary theory offer insights for identifying species and assessing how biodiversity metrics may correlate with ecosystem processes. My two projects aim to address two facets imperative to conservation in the tallgrass …
Impacts Of Strategic Grazing And Fire On Soil Seed Bank Heterogeneity In Mixed-Grass Prairie, Kassidy Weathers, Lan Xu, Patricia Johnson
Impacts Of Strategic Grazing And Fire On Soil Seed Bank Heterogeneity In Mixed-Grass Prairie, Kassidy Weathers, Lan Xu, Patricia Johnson
Natural Resource Management Faculty Publications
Native plant communities in the Northern Great Plains evolved under periodic fire and substantial grazing pressure from native herbivores, two main drivers maintaining the heterogeneity of grassland ecosystems. However, contemporary management practices focus on maximizing livestock production through fire suppression and uniform grazing strategies, resulting in decreased vegetation heterogeneity, species richness, wildlife habitat, and biodiversity. Objectives of this study were to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of patch-burn grazing (PBG) and winter-patch grazing (WPG) managements on soil seed bank heterogeneity in terms of species 1) richness, 2) composition, 3) abundance, and 4) diversity. Two soil cores (10-cm dia × 10-cm …
Interactive Effects Of Cover Crops, Invertebrate Communities And Soil Health In Corn Production Systems, Claire Lacanne
Interactive Effects Of Cover Crops, Invertebrate Communities And Soil Health In Corn Production Systems, Claire Lacanne
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The adoption of regenerative farming practices is gaining traction, but the costs and benefits are not often considered on a systems level. Encouraging biodiversity and soil health is the goal of many agricultural practices used in regenerative farming; regenerative systems employ practices which abide by the two main principles of increasing biodiversity and decreasing disturbance, with the goal of encouraging ecosystem functioning to minimize inputs and maximize the productivity of a farm. I examined the management of corn (Zea mays) fields across four states in the Upper Midwest region of the United States. Regenerative systems in this study …