Table Of ContentFIELD
and
LABORATORY
INVESTIGATIONS
AGROECOLOGY
in
Second Edition
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FIELD
and
LABORATORY
INVESTIGATIONS
AGROECOLOGY
in
Second Edition
Stephen R. Gliessman
University of California, Santa Cruz
Boca Raton London New York
CRC Press is an imprint of the
Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
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CRC Press
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© 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
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Version Date: 20131106
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Author
Stephen R. Gliessman. With a B.A. in botany, an M.A. in biology, and a Ph.D. in plant ecology from the
University of California, Santa Barbara, Stephen R. Gliessman has accumulated more than 33 years of
teaching, research, and production experience in the field of agroecology. His international experiences in
tropical and temperate agriculture, small-farm and large-farm systems, traditional and conventional farm
management, hands-on and academic activities, nonprofit and for-profit work experience, and organic and
synthetic chemical farming approaches have provided a unique combination of materials and perspectives to
incorporate into this text. He was the founding director of the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC),
Agroecology Program, one of the first formal agroecology programs in the world, and is the Alfred and
Ruth Heller Professor of Agroecology in the Department of Environmental Studies at UCSC. He is the
cofounder of the nonprofit Community Agroecology Network (CAN) and director of the undergraduate
residential learning Program in Community and Agroecology (PICA). He also dry farms organic wine
grapes and olives with his wife Robbie and son Erin in northern Santa Barbara County, California.
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Contents
AGROECOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS
Part I Studies of Environmental Factors
1. Effect of Microclimate on Seed Germination ......................................................................................3
2. Light Transmission and the Vegetative Canopy .................................................................................15
3. Soil Temperature ................................................................................................................................29
4. Soil Moisture Content ........................................................................................................................37
5. Soil Properties Analysis .....................................................................................................................45
6. Canopy Litterfall Analysis .................................................................................................................59
7. Mulch System Comparison ................................................................................................................67
8. Root System Response to Soil Type ...................................................................................................83
Part II Studies of Population Dynamics in Crop Systems
9. Intraspecific Interactions in a Crop Population ..................................................................................95
10. Management History and the Weed Seedbank ................................................................................109
11. Comparison of Arthropod Populations ............................................................................................125
12. Census of Soil-Surface Fauna ..........................................................................................................135
Part III Studies of Interspecific Interactions in Cropping Communities
13. Bioassay for Allelopathic Potential ..................................................................................................147
14. Rhizobium Nodulation in Legumes ..................................................................................................169
15. Effects of Agroecosystem Diversity on Herbivore Activity .............................................................179
16. Herbivore Feeding Preferences ........................................................................................................189
17. Effects of a Weedy Border on Insect Populations ............................................................................199
Part IV Studies of Farm and Field Systems
18. Mapping Agroecosystem Biodiversity .............................................................................................211
19. Overyielding in an Intercrop System................................................................................................217
20. Grazing Intensity and Net Primary Productivity .............................................................................233
21. Effects of Trees in an Agroecosystem ..............................................................................................243
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Part V Food System Studies
22. On-Farm Energy Use .......................................................................................................................259
23. Farmer Interview ..............................................................................................................................267
24. Local Food Market Analysis ............................................................................................................273
INSTRUCTOR’S APPENDIX
Appendix A. Planning the Field and Laboratory Course ........................................283
Equipment and Facilities ............................................................................................................................284
Choosing Investigations to Match Your Goals ...........................................................................................284
Choosing Investigations for Your Climate and Season ..............................................................................286
Scheduling the Investigations .....................................................................................................................286
Combining and Coordinating Investigations..............................................................................................289
Modifying Investigations ...........................................................................................................................290
Accumulating Data from Year to Year.......................................................................................................291
Running the Field and Laboratory Course .................................................................................................291
Preparing and Maintaining the Investigation Set-ups ................................................................................291
Working with Teams ..................................................................................................................................292
Using the Datasheets ..................................................................................................................................292
Sharing Data among Teams .......................................................................................................................292
Assigning Work ..........................................................................................................................................293
GENERAL APPENDICES
Appendix B. Measurement Equivalents ................................................................297
Appendix C. Material and Equipment Suppliers ....................................................301
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Instructor’s Preface
The purpose of this manual is to give students opportunities to gain direct hands-on field and laboratory
experience with the concepts that make up the science of agroecology. Since agroecology is defined as the
application of ecological concepts and principles to the design and management of sustainable food systems,
such an experiential approach to teaching agroecology is essential.
This manual is specifically designed to be used for the field and lab component of a lecture-based
classroom course in which Agroecology: The Ecology of Sustainable Food Systems serves as the main text.
The twenty-four investigations are divided into five sections that roughly parallel the organization of the
textbook, with each focusing on a distinct level of ecological complexity.
Investigations in the first section, Studies of Environmental Factors, are mainly autecological in
nature. They deal with how an individual plant responds to the environment, how environmental factors in
specific agroecosystems are measured and characterized, and how particular environmental factors affect
individual plants.
In the second section, Studies of Population Dynamics in Crop Systems, investigations highlight how
populations of organisms act in agroecosystems. They focus on what populations are present in a system,
how populations change over time and respond to the environment, and how individuals within a population
may interact.
The level of the community is the focus of the third section, Studies of Interspecific Interactions in
Cropping Communities. Here, investigations explore the between-species interactions of the organisms that
make up crop communities. These interactions include herbivory, allelopathy, and mutualisms.
Investigations in the fourth section, Studies of Farm and Field Systems, look at the system level of agro-
ecology, examining either whole farms or systems within farm boundaries. These investigations touch on
the complexity with which the farmer deals in managing agroecosystems.
Finally, in the fifth section, Food System Studies, investigations reach out beyond the individual farm
to examine components of the food system at a local level, which impact all of the levels of analysis in the
first four sections.
In addition to this parallel structure, Field and Laboratory Investigations in Agroecology provides the
instructor with other tools for correlating the lecture and lab components of a course. Each investigation
indicates the chapters in the text to which the investigation relates most directly, and the investigation’s
Introduction section generally includes more specific references to textbook content. Further, a table
at the end of this Preface provides an overview of chapter–investigation correlation. Not all the text’s
chapters are included in this table — Chapters 1 through 3 are general enough to have some connection to
most investigations, and some later chapters cover topics (such as fire and genetics) that are not addressed
in any investigations.
Despite the integration of this manual with Agroecology: The Ecology of Sustainable Food Systems,
it can also be used without the text — as the core of a field and laboratory course, for example — or with
another textbook in agroecology, agronomy, or ecology (in which case a copy of Agroecology will be handy
for consultation).
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