Building sustainability and resilience from the ground up
We explore how diversification and healthy soil ecosystems can help agriculture meet its sustainability and resilience goals. We integrate concepts and methodologies from various disciplines to measure outcomes of ecological intensification strategies and linkages between diversification, soil health and ecological resilience. We also study plant-microbe interactions in the rhizosphere and the ecological functions central to crop production in agroecological systems.
We engage communities with the science of agricultural ecology by collaborating with and learning from a diverse group of students, growers, advisors, and policy advocates. Although our research mainly focuses on the biophysical aspects of agroecology, we value and consider other academic fields and types of knowledge instrumental to catalyze change and create a safe space for exploration and discussion of agroecology as a practice, science and movement. We consider supportive mentoring, open science and collaborative and creative team work to be core to success. We practice UC Davis Principles of Community, are committed to addressing systemic racism and inequities in our field and promote diversity, equity and inclusion in our group and more broadly in Academia and STEM.
