Cover image for Agroecology
Title:
Agroecology
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Physical Description:
x, 330 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
ISBN:
9789400759169
Abstract:
"This book represents an interdisciplinary approach to the relevant aspects of agricultural production related to the interactions between natural processes, human activities and the environment. It provides condensed and comprehensive knowledge on the functions of various agroecosystems at the field, landscape and global scale. Understanding and integrating complex ecological processes into field production, land management and food systems is essential in order to deal with the challenges of modern crop and livestock production. These are characterized by the need for food security for the growing human population on the one hand, and the necessity to combat the detrimental effects of food production on the environment on the other. The book provides the scientific basis required by students and scientists involved in the theoretical and practical development of sustainable agroecosystems and contributes to a range of disciplines including Agriculture, Biology, Geography, Landscape Ecology, Organic Farming, Biological Control, and Global Change Ecology. Specific chapters include: the beginnings and progress of agriculture; abiotic processes and species interactions in agroecosystems; ecology of agricultural soils, weeds, pests and diseases; management and control options; livestock production systems, agroecosystems of the different ecozones of the world; environmental problems including land degradation and effects of land use on biodiversity and ecological cycles; global aspects related to the future of human food production, global climate change and the increasing world population."
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37000000000021 S589.7 M37 2013 Open Access Book Book
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Summary

Summary

This book represents an interdisciplinary approach to the relevant aspects of agricultural production related to the interactions between natural processes, human activities and the environment. It provides condensed and comprehensive knowledge on the functions of various agroecosystems at the field, landscape and global scale. Understanding and integrating complex ecological processes into field production, land management and food systems is essential in order to deal with the challenges of modern crop and livestock production: the need for food security for the growing human population, and the necessity to combat the detrimental effects of food production on the environment. The book provides the scientific basis required by students and scientists involved in the development of sustainable agroecosystems and contributes to a range of disciplines including Agriculture, Biology, Geography, Landscape Ecology, Organic Farming, Biological Control, and Global Change Ecology.


Author Notes

Konrad Martin is biologist and agroecologist at the University of Hohenheim, Germany.
His specific interests are animal-plant interactions and community ecology. He was involved in various international research projects in countries of Southeast Asia and conducted studies on biological pest control and food webs in agroecosystems, on insect diversity cultivated tropical landscapes, and on the effects of land use change on species interactions.

Joachim Sauerborn studied agricultural sciences at the universities Giessen and Hohenheim, Germany. He conducted studies on weed ecology and agroecology in tropical and subtropical regions and spent a research period at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas in Aleppo, Syria. As a professor for agroecology at the University of Hohenheim, his main research is on land resources management in tropical regions. He has published several books and over 70 articles in refereed journals.


Reviews 1

Choice Review

The concepts shared by agriculture and ecology are apparent to those working in these disciplines, but in the past decade their commonalities have become attenuated by the various food movements, including local and slow foods and food safety in agricultural systems. The scholarly discipline of agroecology exists in this timely and dynamic intersection. Martin and Sauerborn (both, Univ. of Hohenheim, Germany) use a broad approach to reach a wide spectrum of readers. The book has been translated very well from the original German. The examples and concepts of agroecology presented are universal. The authors have assembled a body of knowledge that teaches the ecological concepts of population dynamics, evolution, regional and global nutrient cycles, parasitic and predator-prey interactions, types of competition, etc., within an agricultural milieu. The result is a dynamic synthesis of ecological thought based in agricultural science that is most welcome. This has the potential to be the book that introduces new student cohorts in both biology and agriculture to the other's point of view and to begin a new, productive conversation to the benefit of both. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. M. J. Stone Western Kentucky University