The Biology of Agroecosystems

Dr Nicola Randall is Director of the Centre for Evidence Based Agriculture (CEBA) at Harper Adams University, UK, a reviewing, training and co-ordinating hub for the collation and synthesis of agri-food evidence and part of the UK Collaboration for Environmental Evidence Centre. Her main research interests are in the fields of agricultural ecology and sustainable food production, and in the use of scientific evidence in order to support and underpin policy and management decision making. She is Course Leader for the Agroecology MSc at Harper Adams University.Dr Barbara Smith is a Senior Research Fellow in Agricultural Ecology and Public Science at the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, UK. She is an Associate Director of the Centre for Pollination Studies at Calcutta University and is Chair of the Agricultural Ecology Special Interest Group of the British Ecological Society. She previously worked as a Senior Scientist in the Farmland Ecology Unit at the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (2002-2015) developing and evaluating agri-environment scheme options.

The authors accomplished their goal for this book by providing readers with a thorough yet succinct background on agroecosystems, including the biological pressures and issues that must be considered in successful management of these complex systems. The Biology of Agroecosystems would be beneficial to students, land managers, and researchers with an interest in balancing agricultural production and natural resource conservation.

• 1: Introduction2: Agricultural environments3: Biodiversity4: Biotic interactions and ecosystem functioning5: Soils6: Water (hydrology)7: The Biological Impacts of Globalization of Agriculture8: Conservation and sustainable management of agroecosystems9: Future perspectives