Definition of the Subject
Agroecology provides guidelines to develop diversified agroecosystems that take advantage of the effects of the integration of plant and animal biodiversity . From a management perspective, the agroecological objective is to provide balanced environments, sustained yields, biologically mediated soil fertility, and natural pest regulation through the design of diversified agroecosystems and the use of low-input technologies.
Introduction
Constraints to agricultural production may be classified into four basic categories: abiotic, biotic, socioeconomic, and those related to crop management. The origin and importance of each constraint, their associated losses, and opportunities to alleviate them will vary for the crop, the input and management levels employed, and the environmental and socioeconomic characteristics of the broader farming system in which the crop is grown. Agronomists and plant protectionists...
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Abbreviations
- Abiotic factor:
-
A nonliving component of the environment, such as soil, nutrients, light, fire, or moisture.
- Adaptation:
-
(1) Any aspect of an organism or its parts that is of value in allowing the organism to withstand the conditions of the environment. (2) The evolutionary process by which a species’ genome and phenotypic characteristics change over time in response to changes in the environment.
- Agroecology:
-
The science of applying ecological concepts and principles to the design and management of sustainable agroecosystems.
- Agroecosystem:
-
An agricultural system understood as an ecosystem.
- Agroforestry:
-
The practice of including trees in crop- or animal-production agroecosystems.
- Allelopathy:
-
An interference interaction in which a plant releases into the environment a compound that inhibits or stimulates the growth or development of other plants.
- Beneficial insects – arthropods:
-
Beneficial insects are predators, parasites, or competitors of insect pests, helping to regulate pest populations without harm to crops.
- Biomass:
-
The mass of all the organic matter in a given system at a given point in time.
- Biotic factor:
-
An aspect of the environment related to organisms or their interactions.
- Competition:
-
An interaction in which two organisms remove from the environment a limited resource that both require, and both organisms are harmed in the process. Competition can occur between members of the same species and between members of different species.
- Consumer:
-
An organism that ingests other organisms (or their parts or products) to obtain its food energy.
- Decomposer:
-
A fungal or bacterial organism that obtains its nutrients and food energy by breaking down dead organic and fecal matter and absorbing some of its nutrient content.
- Disturbance:
-
An event or short-term process that alters a community or ecosystem by changing the relative population levels of at least some of the component species.
- Diversity:
-
(1) The number or variety of species in a location, community, ecosystem, or agroecosystem. (2) The degree of heterogeneity of the biotic components of an ecosystem or agroecosystem (see ecological diversity).
- Domestication:
-
The process of altering, through directed selection, the genetic makeup of a species so as to increase the species’ usefulness to humans.
- Dominant species:
-
The species with the greatest impact on both the biotic and abiotic components of its community.
- Ecosystem:
-
A functional system of complementary relations between living organisms and their environment within a certain physical area.
- Generalist:
-
A species that tolerates a broad range of environmental conditions; a generalist has a broad ecological niche.
- Habitat:
-
The particular environment, characterized by a specific set of environmental conditions, in which a given species occurs.
- Herbaceous:
-
Nonwoody.
- Herbivore:
-
An animal that feeds exclusively or mainly on plants. Herbivores convert plant biomass into animal biomass.
- Host:
-
An organism that provides food or shelter for another organism.
- Intercropping:
-
Planting more than one crop in a field using a regular pattern that interleaves each crop in some pattern. A form of polyculture.
- Integrated pest management:
-
Pest control using an array of complementary approaches including natural predators, parasites, pest-resistant varieties, pesticides, and other biological and environmental control practices.
- Legume:
-
A plant in the Leguminosae (Fabaceae) family. Most species in this family can fix nitrogen.
- Microclimate:
-
The environmental conditions in the immediate vicinity of an organism.
- Multi-trophic relationships:
-
The organization of feeding and energy-transfer relationships that determine the path of energy flow through a community or ecosystem that involves organisms of different levels.
- Mycorrhizae:
-
Symbiotic fungal connections with plant roots through which a fungal organism provides water and nutrients to a plant and the plant provides sugars to the fungi.
- Organic matter:
-
Material containing molecules based on Carbon, usually referring to soil organic matter.
- Parasite:
-
An organism that uses another organism for food and thus harms the other organism.
- Parasitism:
-
An interaction in which one organism feeds on another organism, harming (but generally not killing) it.
- Parasitoid:
-
A parasite that feeds on predators or other parasites.
- Patchiness:
-
A measurement of the diversity of successional stages present in a specific area.
- Patchy landscape:
-
A landscape with a diversity of successional stages or habitat types.
- Phenotype:
-
The physical expression of the genotype; an organism’s physical characteristics. Phenology is the study of periodic plant and animal life-cycle events and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate.
- Polyculture:
-
Cropping systems in which different crop species are grown in mixtures in the same field at the same time.
- Predation:
-
An interaction in which one organism kills and consumes another.
- Predator:
-
An animal that consumes other animals to satisfy its nutritive requirements.
- Primary production:
-
The amount of light energy converted into plant biomass in a system.
- Productivity:
-
The ecological processes and structures in an agroecosystem that enable production.
- Seed bank:
-
The total seed presence in the soil.
- Shifting agriculture:
-
Farming systems that alternate periods of annual cropping with extended fallow periods. “Slash and burn” systems of shifting cultivation use fire to clear fallow areas for cropping.
- Species richness:
-
The number of different species in a community or ecosystem.
- Successional stages:
-
A condition characterized by a particular community of a succession, which is the process by which one community gives way to another.
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Ghersa, C.M. (2013). Agroecological Basis for Managing Biotic Constraints. In: Christou, P., Savin, R., Costa-Pierce, B.A., Misztal, I., Whitelaw, C.B.A. (eds) Sustainable Food Production. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5797-8_196
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