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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Tifton, Georgia » Southeast Watershed Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #390637
Research Project: Enhancing Water Resources, Production Efficiency and Ecosystem Services in Gulf Atlantic Coastal Plain Agricultural Watersheds

Location: Southeast Watershed Research

Title: Identifying suitable spatial frameworks for agroecosystems analysis

Author
item Coffin, Alisa
item Arthur, Dan
item Baffaut, Claire
item Goslee, Sarah
item Pisarello, Kathryn
item PONCE-CAMPOS, GUILLERMO - University Of Arizona

Submitted to: US-International Association for Landscape Ecology
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/21/2022
Publication Date: 4/13/2022
Citation: Coffin, A.W., Arthur, D.K., Baffaut, C., Goslee, S.C., Pisarello, K., Ponce-Campos, G. 2022. Identifying suitable spatial frameworks for agroecosystems analysis. 2022 Annual Meeting of the US-International Association for Landscape Ecology--North American Chapter; 04/13/2022; Virtual; 2022.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Ensuring food, fuel, and fiber for the future requires sustaining and enhancing agroecosystems to provide a multitude of benefits while minimizing environmental impacts. The Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) Network was established by the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) to “develop national strategies for the sustainable intensification of agriculture production” and is dedicated to researching strategies across interacting domains of productivity, human dimensions, and environmental quality. The need to identify a quantifiable spatial framework in the LTAR Network was first articulated in 2017. In response, the collaborative Regionalization Project has been focused on helping the LTAR Network identify such a transferable framework for the representation of LTAR sites, and the extrapolation of results from the LTAR Network’s common experimental design. To accomplish its goals, the network requires a coherent structure to accommodate geospatial modeling of regional- and national-scale scenarios related to suites of agricultural innovations. Such a framework can also serve as a geographic template for identifying critical gaps in LTAR’s representation of agroecosystems in terms of production, environmental impacts, and rural well-being. This framework is intended to supplement existing spatial frameworks (e.g., watersheds or ecoregions) in cases where those geographies are poorly suited to representing agroecological systems or processes.