ABSTRACT
In ecological terms, a cropping system is a community formed by a complex of interacting populations of crops, weeds, microorganisms, insects, and, sometimes, other animals. The interactions among the populations of the crop community, which arise from the different kinds of interference, give the community characteristics, called emergent qualities, which exist only at the community level. These emergent qualities cannot be fully explained in terms of the properties of populations or individuals. In both natural ecosystems and agroecosystems, community-level phenomena are of critical importance in a system’s stability, productivity, and dynamic functioning.
