Two of the most pressing challenges of the twenty-first century are to improve global food security and more effectively conserve biodiversity. Food security and biodiversity conservation are intimately connected through agriculture, which is widely recognized as a driver of biodiversity decline. However, the multi-scalar relationships affecting the achievement of both food security and biodiversity conservation are still not fully understood, and assessment frameworks often assume that food security and biodiversity conservation are ‘competing goals’ that must inherently trade-off. The Emerging Research Cluster for Diversified Agroecosystems (2018) uses ecological, social, and economic and systems analysis perspectives for integrated research on sustainable agriculture and food systems. Our aim is to develop and implement monitoring protocols to examine the trade-offs and synergies in social and ecosystem services in diversified agroecosystems.
This Roundtable will assess and advance a synthesis and research agenda focused more specifically on innovations for agroecosystem monitoring at the intersection of food security and biodiversity.
Loren Rieseberg
Wall Associate
The Rieseberg lab integrates high-throughput genomic methods, bioinformatics, ecological experiments, and evolutionary theory to study the genetics of speciation, adaptation, domestication, and weed evolution. Our primary research interest concerns how new species arise – one of the most fundamental questions in biology. Much of this work focuses on how reproductive barriers arise in the sunflower genus Helianthus, but we also analyze patterns of variation in other plant and animal groups to make more general conclusions about speciation.
Co-Principal Investigator Awards
Hannah Wittman – International Research Roundtables – 2019
Harriett Friedmann – International Visiting Research Scholars – 2018