Teaching

• Agroecology Lab Online

  

   

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      Research

• Biodiversity in Agriculture

  

  Biodiversity is an essential feature of healthy ecosystems. Biodiversity in agriculture promotes ecosystem services such as soil quality, weed suppression, and pollination. However, some compositions of biodiversity may be detrimental to the production and stability for target crop species in agricultural systems. We are working to identify all of the plant species at the Tropical Research and Education Center to understand the composition of the agroecosystem at the research station. We also conduct regular plant diversity surveys to monitor the impacts of biodiversity on the diverse selection of cropping systems at the research station.

   

  The value of tropical plant diversity 

  Plant Diversity and Land-Use History across Agricultural and Natural Habitats of South Florida

   

   

• Agroecosystems

  

  Sustainability in agriculture requires an understanding of the regional connectedness of farms and their surrounding areas. Whether a farm is surrounded by natural or urban areas, the surrounding neighborhood uniquely affects the external pressures affecting farm dynamics and management. We are developing an agroecosystems experiment at TREC to understand the impact of surrounding areas on cropping systems. We use cover crops to represent a simplified cropping system to evaluate crop physiology, weed suppression, and soil amendment. The interaction among characteristics of the surrounding area, such as plant diversity, with the cropping system will begin to uncover important agroecosystem-level drivers and dynamics.

  Residue decomposition dynamics in mixed ratios of two warm-season cover crops

  Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Subtropical Agriculture Fields Decrease Over Time

   

   

• Sustainable Cropping Systems

  

  Peanut Aflatoxin

  Aflatoxins are produced by molds that contaminate many staple crops, such as peanuts. Aflatoxin contamination is a common source of crop loss in peanut production, storage, and processing due to the public health risks of aflatoxin ingestion. With collaborators across the University of Florida and Georgia State University, I am working to understand the vulnerabilities to aflatoxin contamination in peanuts across the food system. Target areas of the project include adaptive water management on peanut farms and advanced imaging technologies to identify aflatoxin contamination in harvested and stored peanuts.

  Developing statistical models of aflatoxin risk in peanuts using historical weather data

   

   

  

  Industrial Hemp

  Industrial hemp has been identified as a potentially valuable and impactful alternative crop for Florida. To support the future viability and sustainability of a hemp industry, preliminary assessment of the crop and cropping systems must be established prior to commercialization. With a statewide research team across the University of Florida, we have proposed the UF Industrial Hemp Pilot Project to identify hemp germplasm appropriate for Florida’s diverse environmental and agronomic conditions, to develop cropping systems that serve a diverse range of hemp industries, and to assess and mitigate hemp invasion risk.

  Hemp Resources

   

   

• TREC Nature

  

  The University of Florida Tropical Research and Education Center (TREC), Homestead, FL, covers 160 acres (0.25 mi2) on rocky, high pH, non-flooded soils. These can be amended (landscape areas), plowed (tilled fields), or unplowed (hammocks and pine rocklands). There are diverse weedy, ornamental, vegetable, fruit, and native plant species in lawns, beds, orchards, fields, dumps, pots, epiphytic environments, reclaimed from cultivation (3 ac), in hammocks (5 ac), and in pine rocklands (3 ac). This mélange of land use resulted from over 90 years of plant introduction, research, teaching, and extension in various agriculture and conservation subjects. TREC, therefore hosts an incredibly diverse 838 plant species, with at least 289 (34%) native--and the numbers keep growing! TREC native plants include 45 rare species (Wunderlin & Hansen 2011), with 22 of them “rare or imperiled” (Florida Natural Areas Inventory 2023). Of the 45 species, 10 are growing only as cultivated plants, 34 occur within native habitats in pine rockland and hammock, 5 are endemic, and 1 was re-introduced into its native habitat. TREC also has at least 507 non-native plant species, including 291 established and 216 only found in cultivation. The latter group includes two palms that are extremely rare and endangered in Haiti, where they are native. Our Agroecology lab at TREC documents plant diversity, develops outreach programs for public education, sells and exchanges plant seeds, and improves rockland habitats for native plants by management, increasing acreage, and re-introduction.

  Plant Diversity of the Tropical Research and Education Center

   

   

      Extension

• 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 and challenging to manage. The agroecology framework can help improve the sustainable management of agriculture and natural resources through the agroecosystem concept. “The Agroecosystem Concept” Extension program is a set of trainings aimed at county agriculture and natural resources agents and their stakeholders to increase the visibility of and engagement with agroecosystems. Participants should aspire to develop management strategies that improve environmental and economic outcomes of cropping systems from an understanding of the environmental and ecological characteristics of an agroecosystem.

  Agroecosystems

  Agroecosystems Glossary

   

• Agroecology Projects
  Three unique agroecosystems (demonstration farm, school garden, restoration area) were mapped and tracked to demonstrate unifying features of agroecology and to describe the status of agroecosystem health and sustainability. Core indicators related to management practices were established according to production, conservation, and community contexts of sustainable agroecology.

   

  

  

  

   

   

   

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