Now Open Registration for the Agroecology Lab Online Course!
Check the Teaching section below for more details and to register.
Teaching
Research
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Biodiversity in Agriculture
Biodiversity is an essential feature of healthy ecosystems. Biodiversity is managed in agriculture to promote production and supporting ecosystem services such as soil quality, weed suppression, and pollination. Our focus on biodiversity targets plant selection and management. TREC is a ¼ square mile that has more than 800 plant species: roughly thirds native, established, and assisted status. We use plant surveys to monitor biodiversity across native, agricultural, and urban habitats and to understand impacts from land use and crop management on biodiversity.The value of tropical plant diversity
Plant Diversity and Land-Use History across Agricultural and Natural Habitats of South Florida
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Agroecosystems
Agroecosystems are lands and biological systems managed for production within the essential context of the neighboring and connected systems. Production can be defined broadly for mass or currency. Practically, plants are produced for food, fuel, fiber, or medicines. Plants can also be considered for their value in price, carbon, or beauty. Broader context for agroecosystems also includes the interconnected components of agriculture and nature. Sustainability in agriculture requires an understanding of the regional connectedness of farms and their surrounding areas. Each farm is also affected by a unique context of surrounding by natural, agricultural, and urban areas. We study agroecosystems to understand the environmental and external pressures affecting plant growth and production. We develop research infrastructure and educational materials around plant selection and management in agroecosystems. We plant a lot of “cover crops,” especially in mixtures, to develop productivity and then to evaluate crop physiology, weed suppression, and soil health. Extra special interest for practical plant diversity through crop mixtures, groundcovers, and horticulture.
Residue decomposition dynamics in mixed ratios of two warm-season cover crops
Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Subtropical Agriculture Fields Decrease Over Time
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Sustainable Cropping Systems
Peanut Aflatoxin
Aflatoxins are a public health risk produced by molds that contaminate many staple crops, such as peanuts. Aflatoxin contamination can result in major losses to peanut production, storage, and processing. With university and industry collaborators across the US peanut region, we are working to develop models of aflatoxin contamination risk in peanuts that may be useful to farmers across the harvest season.Developing statistical models of aflatoxin risk in peanuts using historical weather data
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Industrial Hemp
Hemp has been identified as a potentially valuable and impactful alternative crop for Florida. We have developed several cropping systems available to the hemp industry for production of flower, seed, and fiber. Our research focus includes climate-smart management practices, nutrient management recommendations, and the assessment of hemp invasion risk.
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Hemp Resources
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TREC Nature
The UF/IFAS Tropical Research and Education Center (TREC), Homestead, FL, covers 160 acres (0.25 mi2) on rocky, high pH, non-flooded soils that include natural, agricultural, and urban use. Natural areas at TREC include hardwood hammocks (5 ac) and pine rockland (3 ac). More than 280 native plant species have been documented at TREC, including 34 rare native plant species. Five of these are considered endemic. Our work documents the local plant diversity, develops outreach programs for public education, sells and exchanges plant seeds, and manages our rockland habitats for conservation of native plants.
Plant Diversity of the Tropical Research and Education Center
Extension
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The Agroecosystem Concept
Agroecosystems are described by the interacting features of environmental and ecological characteristics of a farm and the surrounding area. Agroecosystems are complex to manage within the trade-offs of competing outcomes. The agroecology framework aims to help improve management of natural resources and ecosystem services in agroecosystems. “The Agroecosystem Concept” Extension module is a set of trainings aimed at land managers and their local county agriculture and natural resources agents to map and plan agroecosystems for production, biodiversity, and resilience. Participants develop plant selection and management strategies within set space and time boundaries and aligned with the sustainability goals of agroecology.
Agroecosystems
Agroecosystems Glossary
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Agroecology Projects
The Agroecosystem Concept is actively deployed throung ongoing projects with the lab. For example, here are three unique agroecosystems (demonstration farm, school garden, restoration area) that were mapped and tracked to demonstrate unifying features of agroecology. We aim to describe the status of the agroecosystem health and sustainability for these areas. Core indicators related to management practices were established according to production, conservation, and community contexts of sustainable agroecology. At a foundational level, the goal is to increase plant diversity over time with increased productivity in ag zones, increased conservation in nature zones, and increased community engagement in the urban zones.
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