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The Integrative Agroecology Lab conducts interdisciplinary research on plant strategies and the nutrient economy of diversified agroecosystems. We investigate practices that improve the efficiency of nutrient cycles, optimize plant-soil interactions, and promote landscape scale ecosystem services in agroecological and agroforestry systems. Our research aims to provide mechanistic insights into the ecological principles that govern the structure and function of biologically complex agroecosystems. To do this, we make use of a diverse set of technical tools and employ various temporal and spatial scales: from manipulative trials at the rhizosphere scale to observations of large agroecosystem dynamics. The Integrative Agroecology Lab also investigates the social processes that lead to change in agroecological systems, particularly the role of farmer well-being and informal agrarian networks in agroecosystem management.

Recent research highlights:

Editorial and article on the role of Ecological Nutrient Management in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Marschner Review published in Plant and Soil on Nutrient acquisition strategies in agroforestry systems.

Research findings profiled on Science Daily, Anthropocene magazine, and the Star, for our paper “Regional and global shifts in crop diversity through the Anthropocene“.

Lead author of collaborative review paper on Agroecology in Canada in the journal Sustainability.

Editor of Special Issue on Functional Traits in Agroecology in the Journal of Applied Ecology.

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Dr. Marney Isaac is a Professor and Canada Research Chair (Agroecosystems and Development – Tier 2). Dr. Isaac is the co-Director of the Sustainable Food and Farming Futures research cluster at UTSC. She is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Applied Ecology and Agronomy for Sustainable Development and a Subject Editor for the journal Biotropica.

Marney Isaac holds faculty positions in:m-isaac

 

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