Ways forward for resilience research in agroecosystems

Abstract

Agroecosystems are on both the receiving and contributing ends of increasingly demanding climatic and environmental conditions. Maintaining productive systems under resource scarcity and multiplicative stresses requires precise monitoring and systems-scale planning. By incorporating ecological resilience into agroecosystems research we can gain valuable insight into agroecosystem identity, change, responsivity, and performance under stress, but only if we move away from resilience as a mere touchstone concept. Using the productivity, stability, resistance, and recovery of system processes as a basic framework for resilience monitoring, we propose quantitative research approaches to tackle the continuing lack of biophysical, field-scale indicators needed to lend insight into dynamic resilience variables and mechanisms. We emphasize the importance of considering productive functions, sources of system regulation and disturbance, and cross-scale interactions when applying resilience theory to agroecosystems. Agroecosystem resilience research requires understanding of multiple scales and speeds of influence both above and below the focal scale. When these considerations are addressed, resilience theory can add tangible value to agroecosystems research, both for the purposes of monitoring current systems and of planning future systems that can reconcile productivity and sustainability goals.

Soil biodiversity and biogeochemical function in managed ecosystems

“…Systems with low biodiversity are often highly productive, but have increased vulnerability to system perturbation, including effects of climate change and extreme weather events (Gaudin et al 2015). Soil ecosystem resilience is the capacity to maintain soil function and its resistance and recovery from disturbance and, as such, plays a key role in agro-ecosystem stability (Peterson et al 2018). Resilience in soil ecosystems is commonly linked to the microbial biodiversity present, particularly within and across key functional groups (Grandy et al 2012).…”

Envisioning Present and Future Land-Use Change under Varying Ecological Regimes and Their Influence on Landscape Stability

“…For instance, in the case of agro-ecosystems, disturbance patterns can be chronic (e.g., soil degradation and toxicity), acute (e.g., heat waves and pest invasion), high intensity (e.g., extreme weather), or low intensity (e.g., tillage). Defining disturbance regimes and evaluating potential long-term, gradual changes when monitoring and measuring resilience are particularly relevant issues in ecological studies [124].…”

“…These short-term goals lead to conflict with conservation and management of biodiversity and other long-term ecosystem services [131]. Increasing dependence on a small number of agricultural commodities [132], unsustainable mining of water and soil resources [133], and the biological simplification of agricultural systems [77] are potential sources of instability and vulnerability to climate change and unpredictability, endangering critical ecosystem services to and from agriculture [124]. Moreover, a short-term focus on maximizing productivity can endanger ecosystem services in such a way that dependence on external inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides increases in order to maintain productivity [61].…”

The estimation of energetically self-sufficient agroecosystem’s model

“…In addition, there is an opinion that biofuels obtained in agricultural production have low energy efficiency (Gomiero, 2018). To reduce the negative impact from the biofuel production calls for an increase in the biological diversity of agroecosystems (Kazemi et al, 2018) and a clear monitoring of the ecological sustainability of the agroecosystem (Peterson et al, 2018). Besides, the sustainability and safety criteria of agroecosystems are necessary for the safe and efficient biofuel production (Di Vita at al., 2018).…”