Role of Sustainable Agriculture in Rural Landscapes

Landscape ecology focuses on the spatial and temporal interactions among habitats via exchanges of organisms and materials across the landscape, the influence of heterogeneity on biotic and abiotic processes, and the management of heterogeneity. Natural ecosystems are unsubsidized, solar-powered systems. Pesticides are used to control weeds and insects, fertilizers are applied to maintain soil fertility, and fossil fuels increasingly supply the energy needed to achieve management objectives. Landscape patterns and processes can be determined by cropping practices, landscape heterogeneity, and agroecosystem inputs and outputs. Changes in agriculture since the 1930s have had extensive impacts on patterns and processes in rural agricultural landscapes. Reduced landscape diversity also alters patterns of microclimate and crop-pest interactions. Regulation of crop pests using reduced inputs of pesticides will be promoted by greater landscape diversity within and among field crops.