Water, Climate and California Agriculture:
A Role for Agroecology

Dr. Louise Jackson, Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, UC Davis

Featured Guest Speaker

Dr. Louise Jackson is professor and extension specialist in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources at UC Davis. Her lab focuses on vegetable crop systems and on the comparison of soil processes between intensively-farmed crop systems and neighboring grassland and savanna/woodland ecosystems. Their projects span basic and applied research topics, and address issues related to water, nitrogen, and organic matter management. They have worked in both conventional and organically farmed agroecosystems, and in managed and protected wildland ecosystems. Dr. Jackson has increasingly been involved in social-ecological projects on agricultural adaptation to climate change and on agrobiodiversity and ecosystem services. Her research goals are to:

* Understand ecological processes that control nutrient cycling, microbial community composition, and plant growth and diversity along management and disturbance gradients;

* Develop environmentally-sound management practices for increased sustainability, soil quality, and biodiversity in agricultural and grassland ecosystems in California; and to

* Incorporate concepts of resilience and sustainability into participatory research on responses to climate change, and agrobiodiversity use and conservation.

To learn more about Dr. Jackson and her laboratory's work, please visit: 
http://ucanr.edu/sites/Jackson_Lab/

 

For questions, please contact us at cfs@calpoly.edu or call 805-756-5086.