ABSTRACT: The United States Department of Agriculture has established a Long-Term Agroecosystem Research Network to provide a coordinated framework to, “Enable understanding and forecasting of regional landscape capacities to provide agricultural commodities and ecosystem services under changing conditions.” Each of the eighteen sites has an existing history of agroecological research, and is incorporating common objectives and common measurements into their studies of current and aspirational agricultural systems. The LTAR sites comprise cropland, rangeland, pasture, and both irrigated and rain-fed systems. These research sites collectively span the United States’ major agricultural areas, and produce our most important agricultural commodities, including: corn, wheat, soybeans, cotton, vegetables; and on the livestock side, beef, dairy, swine, poultry and sheep. Ecologically, the current sites lie within most major ecoregions, and additional sites are planned. The agricultural systems now in place are the joint products of climate, soils, history, and infrastructure; long-term and broad-scale research is needed to better understand the current drivers, and to develop practices that are economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable.
Wednesday April 11, 2018 10:00am - 10:15am CDT
Adams Room
