The global challenge of feeding two billion more people by 2050, using sustainable agricultural practices whilst dealing with uncertainties associated environmental change, requires a transformation food systems. We present new perspective for how advances in network science can provide novel ways to better understand, harness, and restore multiple ecological processes environments. describe: (...

The “biodiversity–ecosystem function debate” is considered one of the most heated recent scientific issues within the discipline of Ecology. However, it can be better understood as an interdisciplinary dialogue between Ecology, Agricultural Science, and Agroecology. In this article, I review the interplay of these disciplines on the conflict, the resolution, and the implications of this debate....

The pressing need in adapting and improving farming practices has motivated research efforts to extend the classical analysis of plants and crops to consideration of more complex cropping systems up to farming systems and small regional agroecosystems. Sustainability concerns raise production management issues that are gaining increasing attention in research. This shift of scientific interest ...

The aim of this study was to describe the processes that control humic carbon sequestration in soil. Three experimental sites differing in terms of management system and climate were selected: (i) Abanilla-Spain, soil treated with municipal solid wastes in Mediterranean semiarid climate; (ii) Puch-Germany, soil under intensive tillage and conventional agriculture in continental climate; and (ii...

The present article describes a field auger sampling method for row-crop root measurements. In agroecosystems where crops are planted in a specific design (row crops), sampling procedures for root biomass quantification need to consider the spatial variability of the root system. This article explains in detail how to sample and calculate root biomass considering the sampling position in the fi...

Organic waste beneficial-use programs effectively recycle plant nutrients when applied at agronomic rates. Our objectives were to determine: biosolids nitrogen (N) fertilizer equivalency; biosolids N mineralization during years of above and below average precipitation and long-term N mineralization; which soil phosphorus (P) phases dominate following years of biosolids application; and the pote...