Harris, C.K. and L. Bohannan
Presented at the ASM at Snowbird (2000-08-02 to 2017-12-05 )
Ecological change in a region in which a significant proportion of land use is agricultural is significantly affected by the relationships connecting agriculture with its surrounding environment. To understand change in the region’s human ecosystem, we have to understand both what is happening in the agroecosystem on the farm and what interactions are occurring between the agroecosystem and the surrounding ecosystem. The agroecosystem on the farm and the interactions of that subsystem with the surrounding system are structured to a large extent by the management decisions of the individual farm operator: What enterprises to pursue, what general management regime to follow, and what specific techniques to use are the management decisions made by the farm operator. Based on the analysis of interviews with corn farmers in the KBS/LTER region, farmer’s decisions are built from the foundation of a cognigive model of the farm management system. In this model the soil management decisions are shown to be affecting the soil management behavior which, in turn, affects the soil itself. Each farmer monitors various aspects of the condition off the soil and on the basis of those conditions make the next round of management decisions. A general model of the factors that affect the farm the farmer’s soil management is explicated.
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