ABSTRACT: Around the world, food production systems that rely on intensively managed single crops have tended to disrupt local and global biogeochemical cycles, reduce biodiversity and make farming risky for ecosystems and for people. Simple strategies such as including trees and other sources of biodiversity in the agricultural landscape can curb many of the negative impacts associated with current food production systems. I will present my research groups diagnostic approaches to assessing agroecosystem structure, function and productivity in biologically complex agroecosystems.

 

Biography: Dr. Marney Isaac is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences and the Centre for Critical Development Studies at the University of Toronto Scarborough, and the Department of Geography at the University of Toronto. Dr. Isaac holds the Canada Research Chair in Agroecosystems & Development. She serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Applied Ecology and the journal Agronomy for Sustainable Development. Dr. Isaac leads the Integrative Agroecology Lab, an interdisciplinary lab that addresses fundamental questions on the role of biodiversity in agroecosystems. Dr. Isaac is a specialist in the field of agroecology, with particular expertise in agroforestry systems. Her research provides insights into the plant-soil interactions that govern the structure and function of biologically complex agricultural landscapes. She also supervises an international research program investigating the role of agrarian networks in the adoption of agrobiodiversity.