Abstract: Around the world, food production systems that rely on intensively managed single crops have tended to disrupt local and global biogeochemical cycles, reduce biodiversity, and make farming risky for ecosystems and for people. Simple strategies such as including trees and other sources of biodiversity in the agricultural landscape can curb many of the negative impacts associated with current food production systems. In this talk, Professor Isaac will present her research groups’ diagnostic approaches to assessing agroecosystem function, productivity and social-ecological outcomes with the application of agrobiodiversity.
Dr. Marney Isaac is a Professor in the Department of Physical & Environmental Sciences and the Department of Global Development Studies at the University of Toronto Scarborough. She holds the Canada Research Chair in Agroecosystems & Development and is the co-Director of the University of Toronto’s Sustainable Food & Farming Futures Cluster. Her research develops novel social-ecological methods to generate contemporary insights into sustainable agroecosystem policy and practice. She leads an interdisciplinary research lab that explores plant-soil interactions, nutrient cycles and ecosystem function in diversified agroecosystems and agroforestry systems, and the social processes that lead to agroecological transitions. She serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Applied Ecology, Agronomy for Sustainable Development and Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems.
Great Explorations, is a series of academic discussions we hope will inspire our communities. Our special thanks to our engaged, critical thinkers who attend our speaker series. The dialogues that came out of these talks, both in-person and online via Zoom, are integral to our campus community and Scarborough communities at large. We welcome your input for future topics, as well as a review of previous recorded sessions available on YouTube.