ENTOM/CSS 444: Integrated Pest Management
January 30, 2012
2.3. The impact of Homo Sapiens on ecosystems
2.3.1. Just another organism
2.3.2. Origins of agroecosystems
2.3.3. Anthropological consequences
2.3.4. Ecological consequences
2.4. Comparison of natural vs agroecosystems
Comparison of Natural vs Agroecosystems
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Characteristic
Direction (COMPARED TO NAT. SYSTEMS AG
SYTEMS ARE GENERALLY:)
________________________________________________________________________
Net Productivity
Higher or lower
Mineral cycle
Open or closed
Trophic Relationships
More or less complex
Succession Stage
Earlier or later stage
Selection
Natural or artificial
Species diversity
Higher or lower
Genetic diversity
Higher or lower
Phenology (age diversity)
More or less synchronized
Stability
Higher or lower
2.5. Stability in agroecosystems
2.5.1. What is it and why do we want it?
2.5.2. Does diversity contribute to stability?
2.5.3. Predicting the impact of diversity
Additional Reading:
The development of agriculture was the greatest advance in human history …. or was it?
- read “The worst mistake in the history of the human race” by Jared Diamond
http://delong.typepad.com/teaching_spring_2006/2008/01/jared-diamond-t.html
“To science we owe dramatic changes in our smug self-image. Astronomy taught us that
our earth isn’t the center of the universe but merely one of billions of heavenly bodies.
From biology we learned that we weren’t specially created by God but evolved along with
millions of other species. Now archaeology is demolishing another sacred belief: that
human history over the past million years has been a long tale of progress. In particular,
recent discoveries suggest that the adoption of agriculture, supposedly our most decisive
step toward a better life, was in many ways a catastrophe from which we have never
recovered. With agriculture came the gross social and sexual inequality, the disease and
despotism, that curse our existence.”
Wow! Ya gotta try this stuff - an alternative view of why agriculture developed
http://www.ranprieur.com/readings/origins.html
(Australian Biologist 6:96-105 1993)
“The ingestion of cereals and milk, in normal modern dietary amounts by normal
humans, activates reward centres in the brain. Foods that were common in the diet before
agriculture (fruits and so on) do not have this pharmacological property. The effects of
exorphins are qualitatively the same as those produced by other opioid and / or
dopaminergic drugs, that is, reward, motivation, reduction of anxiety, a sense of
wellbeing, and perhaps even addiction. Though the effects of a typical meal are
quantitatively less than those of doses of those drugs, most modern humans experience
them several times a day, every day of their adult lives.”
A nice one-page synopsis of the neolithic revolution with a map of the centers of origin of
the major crops
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0205/feature1/online_extra.html
An excellent website from what looks like a great class
http://www.wsu.edu/gened/learn-modules/top_agrev/4Agriculture/agriculture1.html