ABSTRACT
Natural ecosystems serve as an ideal model of how to manage agroecosystems based on ecological processes and theory. An under standing of natural ecosystems encourage us to question why conven tional agriculture practices frequently result in environmental problems such as eutrophication at the landscape scale (Barrett and Skelton, 2002), reduction in soil quality (Coleman and Crossley, 1996), de creased biotic diversity (Collins and Qualset, 1999), and the need to in tegrate urban and agricultural landscapes (Barrett, Barrett, and Peles, 1999). Conventional or industrial agricultural traditionally has been based on the concept of increased crop yields (NCR, 1989). To achieve these yields, increased inputs of fertilizes, fossil fuels, and pesticides, frequently termed “subsidies,” have been added in huge quantities as in put to the agricultural enterprise (i.e., a change from a solar-powered, ecologic-based, food producing system to a more fuel-powered, eco nomic-based, agricultural approach). Encompassing ecological pro cesses in the food-producing system will help to alleviate these problems and restore a quality landscape.
