ABSTRACT
When all the factors that confront a crop plant are considered together, it is possible to examine characteristics of the environment that emerge only from the interaction of these factors. These characteristics — which include complexity, heterogeneity, and dynamic change — are the main topics of this chapter. Their examination in terms of their impact on the crop plant, represents the final step in analyzing agroecosystems autecologically, and prepares us for the synecological level of analysis that begins in the following chapter.
