Understanding how soils, plants, microbes, biodiversity, climate, and management interact — and translating that into practical solutions for Prairie agriculture.
Agricultural landscapes are complex ecological systems in which soil, plants, microorganisms, biodiversity, climate, and management practices interact to determine productivity and resilience. The Ecology and Agroecosystem Resilience Program advances research that improves our understanding of these interactions and translates ecological knowledge into practical solutions for Prairie agriculture.
Our research integrates field ecology, agricultural science, molecular and microbiome approaches, environmental monitoring, and emerging digital technologies. We work across scales — from soil and plant processes to farms and agricultural landscapes — to understand how management decisions influence ecosystem function, environmental sustainability, and agricultural productivity.
Interactions among soils, plant roots, microbial communities, pathogens, and management — with a focus on soil biological function, nutrient cycling, plant health, disease-suppressive systems, and the microbiome's contribution to resilience.
How cropping systems and management influence the capacity of agricultural systems to withstand environmental and biological stress: crop diversification, rotations, reduced disturbance, and ecological pest and disease management.
How Prairie systems can adapt to drought, heat, and extreme weather, through the interactions among production, soil and water resources, vegetation, habitat, and landscape structure.
The ecological functions biodiversity provides within working landscapes — pollination, biological pest regulation, nutrient cycling, soil function, habitat connectivity, and water regulation — supported without sacrificing productivity.
Integrating ecological observations with remote sensing, environmental sensors, geospatial analysis, molecular tools, data science, and predictive modelling to monitor condition and anticipate ecological responses to change.
Rather than evaluating environmental outcomes independently from agricultural production, we investigate how ecological processes influence crop performance, production risk, and management decisions. Where appropriate, ecological outcomes are considered alongside agronomic and economic performance to identify solutions that are scientifically robust and practically relevant.
Producer participation is central to our research approach. We aim to develop partnerships with farms and agricultural organizations across the Prairies to conduct research under commercially relevant conditions, identify emerging ecological challenges, evaluate management practices, and facilitate knowledge exchange among producers, researchers, and agricultural professionals.
Our long-term vision is to develop a Prairie Agroecosystem Observatory: a collaborative network of agricultural landscapes where changes in soil, crops, biodiversity, climate, management, and ecosystem function can be studied over time.
By connecting long-term ecological observations with agricultural management and emerging analytical technologies, the network would provide a foundation for understanding, predicting, and improving the resilience of Prairie agroecosystems.