Complexity in human-natural systems: a symposium

A special symposium on “Complexity in Human-Nature Interactions across Landscapes” was convened by Drs. Jack Liu and Bill McConnell (Michigan State University) as part of the 24th annual meeting of the U.S. Chapter of the International Association for Landscape Ecology (US IALE 2009), which took place in Snowbird, Utah, 12-16 April 2009. The Symposium included 17 invited talks form various projects funded by the National Science Foundation’s Coupled Natural and Human Systems program.

Guillermo Podestá presented a talk on “Agent-based simulation of recent changes in agricultural systems of the Argentine Pampas”, co-authored by 12 other project investigators (including two staff members of AACREA, the farming organization working with us in this project).

>> See Podestá ’s presentation (PDF, 2.1 MB)

Why were wheat yields so low in 2008/09?

A previous blog entry discussed the severe drought in the Pampas. In an outreach article recently published in the AACREA Magazine (issue 342, April 2009), project investigators Maru Skansi, Federico Bert, and Fernando Ruiz Toranzo discuss the climate conditions prevailing during the winter cropping season of 2008/09. Poor conditions (initially dry soils, insufficient rainfall during crop growth, higher than average temperatures and late frosts) resulted in wheat yields that in many cases fell within 30-70% of average.

>> See the full article (PDF, 1.4 MB)