agroecosystem

An agroecosystem is an ecosystem created or modified by agricultural activity to produce food, fiber, or fuel, incorporating crops, livestock, soil, water, climate, microorganisms, pests, beneficial organisms, and landscape features. It involves dynamic interactions among biotic and abiotic components shaped by human management, which aims to balance productivity with the sustainability of ecological processes.

Agroecosystems range from monoculture fields to diversified systems such as crop-livestock integration, agroforestry, intercropping, cover crops, no-till, and conservation agriculture. Management practices focus on maintaining soil fertility, improving water use efficiency, regulating pests and diseases, and conserving genetic resources. They often emphasize recycling of nutrients and energy within the system through crop rotations, polycultures, organic amendments, biological controls, and reduced external inputs.

These systems provide provisioning services (food, feed, fiber) and regulate ecological processes (pollination, pest suppression, erosion control, carbon sequestration, microclimate stabilization). They support biodiversity and offer cultural and recreational values. The resilience of agroecosystems depends on functional diversity, habitat heterogeneity, and feedbacks among crops, soil biota, and environmental conditions. Risks include soil degradation, pest outbreaks, water scarcity, and climate variability, which can be mitigated by diversification, targeted interventions, and landscape-level planning.

The concept encompasses traditional and modern practices across scales, from smallholder plots to large farms, and intersects with fields like agroecology, sustainable agriculture, and landscape planning. Evaluation of agroecosystems often uses indicators such as yield stability, soil organic matter, biodiversity indices, nutrient cycling efficiency, and input-use efficiency.