The Ecology of Agroecosystems PDF
Preview The Ecology of Agroecosystems
71539_FMxx_FINAL.QXP 12/4/09 6:09 PM Page i The Ecology of Agroecosystems 71539_FMxx_FINAL.QXP 12/4/09 6:09 PM Page ii Related Titles by Jones and Bartlett Publishers Bioethics: An Introduction to the History, Methods, and Practice, Second Edition Nancy S. Jecker, Albert R. Jonsen, & Robert A. Pearlman Botany: An Introduction to Plant Biology, Fourth Edition James D. Mauseth Environmental Oceanography: Topics and Analysis Daniel C. Abel & Robert L. McConnell Environmental Science, Eighth Edition Daniel D. Chiras Environmental Science: Systems and Solutions, Fourth Edition Michael L. McKinney, Robert M. Schoch, & Logan Yonavjak Invitation to Organic Chemistry A. William Johnson Organic Chemistry, Third Edition Marye Anne Fox & James K. Whitesell Outlooks: Readings for Environmental Literacy, Second Edition Michael L. McKinney & Parri S. Shariff, eds. Plant Cell Biology Brian E. S. Gunning & Martin W. Steer Plants, Genes, and Crop Biotechnology, Second Edition Maarten J. 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To contact Jones and Bartlett Publishers directly, call 800-832-0034, fax 978-443-8000, or visit our website, www.jbpub.com. Substantial discounts on bulk quantities of Jones and Bartlett’s publications are available to corporations, professional asso- ciations, and other qualified organizations. For details and specific discount information, contact the special sales department at Jones and Bartlett via the above contact information or send an email to [email protected]. Copyright © 2011 by Jones and Bartlett Publishers, LLC All rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this copyright may be reproduced or utilized in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner. Production Credits Publisher, Higher Education: Cathleen Sether Acquisitions Editor: Molly Steinbach Senior Editorial Assistant: Jessica S. Acox Editorial Assistant: Caroline Perry Production Assistant: Lisa Lamenzo Senior Marketing Manager: Andrea DeFronzo V.P., Manufacturing and Inventory Control: Therese Connell Composition: Glyph International Cover Design: Kristin E. Parker Assistant Photo Researcher: Carolyn Arcabascio Cover Image: Top: ©Dozet/Dreamstime.com, Bottom: Courtesy of John H. Vandermeer Printing and Binding: Malloy, Inc. Cover Printing: Malloy, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Vandermeer, John H. The ecology of agroecosystems/John H. Vandermeer. p. cm. ISBN 978-0-7637-7153-9 1. Agricultural ecology. 2. Food—Quality—Moral and ethical aspects. 3. Soil chemistry. I. Title. S589.7.V36 2010 630—dc22 2009049561 6048 Printed in the United States of America 13 12 11 10 09 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 71539_FMxx_FINAL.QXP 12/4/09 6:10 PM Page v Dedicated to the small-scale farmers of the world and those who support them. 71539_FMxx_FINAL.QXP 12/4/09 11:43 PM Page vi B C RIEF ONTENTS Chapter 1 Three Vignettes: Setting the Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Chapter 2 Constructivism and the Evolution of Agriculture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Chapter 3 Competition and Facilitation Among Plants: Intercropping, Weeds, Fire, and the Plow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Chapter 4 Soils and the Emergence of the Industrial Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Chapter 5 The Biology of the Soil and the Emergence of an Ecological Vision. . . . . 161 Chapter 6 The Problem of Pests—Herbivory, Disease Ecology, and Biological Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Chapter 7 Biodiversity, Imperialism, and Agricultural Landscapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 Chapter 8 Toward a Sustainable Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359 Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373 Photo Credits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387 vi 71539_FMxx_FINAL.QXP 12/4/09 6:10 PM Page vii C ONTENTS Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xiii Chapter 1 Three Vignettes: Setting the Stage 1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 The Three Vignettes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 The Irish Potato Famine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 The Sun Coffee Crisis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 The Cuban Experience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 The Two Views of Agriculture in Today’s World. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 The Moral Dead Zone—Reflections on a Nightmare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Endnotes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Chapter 2 Constructivism and the Evolution of Agriculture 25 Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Basics of Constructivism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Constructivism in Ecology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Work and Agricultural Origins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 The Constructivist Model for Humans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Generalized Constructivism and Agricultural Origins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Agricultural Origins in Mesoamerica and the Middle East. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Ecological Background. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Basic Settlement Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 The Ecology of Extensive Food Production Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Slash and Burn Agriculture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Nomadic Herding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 vii 71539_FMxx_FINAL.QXP 12/4/09 6:10 PM Page viii viii ■ Contents Intensification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 The Basics of Intensification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Examples of Early Intensification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Traditional Systems, the “New Husbandry,” and the Dawn of Modernity . . . . . . . . 57 Endnotes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Chapter 3 Competition and Facilitation Among Plants: Intercropping, Weeds, Fire, and the Plow 63 Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 The Basic Process of Energy Capture in Photosynthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 The Theory of Plant Competition and Facilitation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Fundamental Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Intercropping: Applied Plant Competition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Agroforestry: Niche Construction and Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Rotations: Competition in Space and Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Plant Competition and Weed Control: From the Fire to the Plow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Plant Competition and Weed Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 What the Plow Has Wrought—Mechanization as a Principle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Herbicides: “Chemical Mechanization” of Weed Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Appendix 3.A: The Ecology of Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 The Three Key Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Equations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Logarithms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Derivatives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Exponential Population Growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 The Logistic Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 The Classic Competition Equations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 The “Mechanism” of Competition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Endnotes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Chapter 4 Soils and the Emergence of the Industrial Approach 117 Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 The Basics of Soil Science—The Nature and Origin of Soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Parent Materials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Weathering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Time and Vegetation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 The Main Types of Soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Classification Based on Parent Material. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Young Soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Classification Correlated with Vegetation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Physical Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Basic Physical Measurements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Soil Texture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Soil Structure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 71539_FMxx_FINAL.QXP 12/4/09 6:10 PM Page ix Contents ■ ix Chemical Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Types and Properties of Soil Colloids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Layered Silicate Clays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Other Types of Soil Colloids. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 Variable Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Origins and Weathering Sequence of Silicate Clays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Cation and Anion Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 The Acidity of the Soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Soil Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 The Chemical Industry and Soil Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Endnotes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Appendix 4.A: Fundamental Ideas of Inorganic Chemistry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 The Atom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Ionic Bonds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 Covalent Bonds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 Hydrogen and Hydroxide Ions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Acidity and Alkalinity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 Hydrogen Bonds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 Chapter 5 The Biology of the Soil and the Emergence of an Ecological Vision 161 Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Changing the Soil Discourse: The Origin of an Alternative Discourse. . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Sir Albert Howard and the Early Pioneers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Some Prewar Entrants: Biodynamic and Other “Spiritual” Movements. . . . . . . . . 164 The Beginnings of the Modern Alternative Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 The Historical Legacy Through the Lens of the Soil. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 Supply of Nutrients for Plant Nutrition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Generalities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 The Nitrogen Cycle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 The Phosphorus Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Mycorrhizae. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 Decomposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 The Basic Structure of Decomposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 The Decomposition Subsystem in Larger Context. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 The Organisms of the Decomposition Subsystem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Decomposition and Organic Matter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Biology and the Physical Structure of the Soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 The Biological Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 Consequences for Soil Physical Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Ecological Theory and Soil Biology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 Dynamic Consequences of Soil Communities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 An Integrated Model of Soil Dynamics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 A General Qualitative Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 Endnotes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
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