BES Facebook pageAgricultural Ecology
Secretary: Barbara Smith
Aims
- To be a forum for exchange of information between ecologists, conservationists, agricultural researchers, land managers and policy makers
- To consider conservation in the farmed landscape, using ecological theory to address agricultural problems, economic and ecological sustainability of current farming systems, and the implications of agricultural policies.
- To do this: a) through meetings, workshops, field visits, an email bulletin board and a website; b) through contact with other societies
Upcoming Meetings:
The state of farmland in 2011: the consensus of long-term monitoring
Joint meeting with the Royal Entomological Society, Charles Darwin House, London, 12 October 2011
In 2010, ‘the year of biodiversity’, the value of long-term monitoring in prioritising global biodiversity targets was flagged up both in the academic literature and the wider press. Long-term monitoring is a well establish feature of agro-ecology and there are a number of meticulously maintained data-sets which focus on a wide-range taxa, revealing much about the state of farmland today. This meeting aims to bring together key people in the organisations which carry out this monitoring to explore:
1) What long-term monitoring tells us about the state of farmland in 2011.
2) How we can use the data to address issues of declining biodiversity.
3) The future of long-term monitoring in a challenging economic climate.
Further Information Adobe PDF, 514 Kb]
Background to the Group
Agriculture is the predominant land use in Britain and the developed world. The pervasiveness of this type of land use and the fact that it involves fundamental changes in ecological processes means agricultural science is a very important subject in Britain and worldwide.
Because agricultural systems are both an economic and environmental resource agricultural research covers several subject areas which have traditionally remained quite separate. These include population, community and ecosystems ecology, conservation ecology, weed control, crop science, grassland production and forestry production.
There has long been a need for a forum for workers involved in these different areas to exchange information on subjects of mutual concern. The Agricultural Ecology Group aims to bridge the gap between ecologists working in agricultural systems, conservationists with an interest in agricultural systems, crop, grassland and forest scientists working on increasing economic production, weed scientists, and agricultural policy makers. It will integrate very different approaches (ecology, economic production, conservation) to agricultural systems to address common issues. Finally, it will enhance communication among scientists and others working on agricultural systems using meetings, workshops, BES Bulletin reports and an email forum.
Contact:
Barbara Smith
Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust
Burgate Manor
Fordingbridge, Hampshire
SP6 1EF, UK
agricultural@britishecologicalsociety.org
