Lesley W. Atwood

Soil health-based management practices aim to reduce agriculture's environmental footprint while stabilizing or increasing yields. Practices that maintain living cover, reduce soil disturbance, and diversify plant inputs build soil health and lead to reduced runoff, increased soil carbon, and improved water quality. Soil health-based practices also support a diverse and active soil food web that benefits the crop by cycling nutrients and biologically controlling pests.

​

In an effort to maximize production, today's cropping systems regularly rely on synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, simplified crop rotations, and tillage which have been shown to disrupt and/or mask a soil’s ability to support crop production. For example, colleagues and I have found that pesticide seed treatments, which are widely used as a prophylactic pest management practice, can change soil microbial communities, impact non-targeted invertebrate populations, and even increase weed seed densities. Our results suggest pesticide seed treatments may not only protect crops, but also protect weed seeds from their natural enemies. This type of degradative feedback interferes with soil derived services and perpetuates the need for input-intensive agricultural practices.

 

Much of my work has focused on quantifying the magnitude of effect conventional versus conservation practices have on the soil food web and its ability to function. Through my work, it has become increasingly evident that an integrated management approach is key to making agriculture more environmentally sustainable. By diversifying our practices, and choosing our practices carefully, we can foster soil-derived regulating services, reduce agricultural's environmental impact, and maintain crop productivity, but reaching these outcomes will take collaboration, risk sharing, and lots of work. As with most complex problems there is no silver bullet, and sustainable agriculture is no exception.