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Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Commons™
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- Agroecology (1)
- Corn (1)
- Fire intensity (1)
- Fire physics (1)
- Fire trap (1)
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- Grassland (1)
- Juniper (1)
- Long-term food systems (1)
- Maize (1)
- Positive feedback (1)
- Regime shifts (1)
- Resilience (1)
- Restoration ecology (1)
- Simulation model (1)
- State and transition model (1)
- Systems learning (1)
- Transformative learning (1)
- Unpredictable future (1)
- Water productivity (1)
- Water use efficiency (1)
- Water-limited yield (1)
- Yield potential (1)
- Zea mays L. (1)
Articles 1 - 4 of 4
Full-Text Articles in Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Teaching Agroecology: Preparing Students For Navigating Uncharted Territory, Charles A. Francis, Steve Gliessman
Teaching Agroecology: Preparing Students For Navigating Uncharted Territory, Charles A. Francis, Steve Gliessman
Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications
Agroecologists understand that farming and food systems are more complex than the aggregation of their components. This realization drives our choices of learning strategies and activities that will prepare students for complexity and uncertainty. Our quest for a just, sustainable, and nutritious food system adequate to equitably serve everyone on the planet today and into the future is an enormous challenge. An undertaking of this magnitude will be met only with major adjustments informed by thoughtful teaching and practicing problem solving skills through a new educational lens. The principles of agroecology help us focus this lens on the wicked problems …
Refining Thresholds In Coupled Fire–Vegetation Models To Improve Management Of Encroaching Woody Plants In Grasslands, Dirac L. Twidwell Jr, Samuel D. Fuhlendorf, Charles A. Taylor Jr, William E. Rogers
Refining Thresholds In Coupled Fire–Vegetation Models To Improve Management Of Encroaching Woody Plants In Grasslands, Dirac L. Twidwell Jr, Samuel D. Fuhlendorf, Charles A. Taylor Jr, William E. Rogers
Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications
1. Restoration priorities are typically established without quantitative information on how to overcome the thresholds that preclude successful restoration of desirable ecosystem properties and services. We seek to demonstrate that quantifying ecological thresholds and incorporating them into management-oriented frameworks provide a more comprehensive perspective on how the threshold concept can be applied to achieve restoration goals.
2. As an example, restoration actions have been largely unsuccessful when based on prevailing ecological knowledge of fire-based thresholds in nonresprouting Juniperus woodland. We build on previous threshold-based research and link well-established models from applied fire physics with a widely applied ecological positive feedback …
Limits To Maize Productivity In The Western Corn-Belt: A Simulation Analysis For Fully Irrigated And Rainfed Conditions, Patricio Grassini, Haishun Yang, Kenneth G. Cassman
Limits To Maize Productivity In The Western Corn-Belt: A Simulation Analysis For Fully Irrigated And Rainfed Conditions, Patricio Grassini, Haishun Yang, Kenneth G. Cassman
Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications
Unlike the Central and Eastern U.S. Corn-Belt where maize is grown almost entirely under rainfed conditions, maize in the Western Corn-Belt is produced under both irrigated (3.2 million ha) and rainfed (4.1 million ha) conditions. Simulation modeling, regression, and boundary-function analysis were used to assess constraints to maize productivity in the Western Corn-Belt. Aboveground biomass, grain yield, and water balance were simulated for fully irrigated and rainfed crops, using 20-year weather records from 18 locations in combination with actual soil, planting date, plant population, and hybrid-maturity data. Mean values of meteorological variables were estimated for three growth periods (pre- and …
Microorganisms And Soil Structure, T. M. Mccalla
Microorganisms And Soil Structure, T. M. Mccalla
Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications
SUMMARY
Laboratory tests were made to determine the effectiveness of different compounds and microbial groups in increasing the stability of Peorian loess lumps against the action of falling water drops. The influence of these on percolation tests in the laboratory was also determined.
Many organic substances-dextrose, sucrose, starch, peptone, cullulose, and gum arabic-did not themselves contribute directly to soil-structure stability, though these substances do furnish energy material for soil microorganisms, which can convert them readily into either microbial tissue or decomposition products that increase soil-structure stability. Lignin, proteins, oils, fats, waxes, resin, and paraffin increased the stability of lumps of …