Complementarity: Applying ecological theory to landscape management

Complementarity is used in ecology to describe how species coexist. Here, we use the idea of complementarity to describe how humans can manage a sustainable planet. Similar to how various species interact in the environment, land cover types interact on the landscape. With strategic placement of land cover types, we can optimize the resource-use efficiency of systems and better manage the pools of carbon, nitrogen, and other substances in the environment. One example is to develop a “closed-loop” landscape of perennial bioenergy crops, conventional food crops, and natural ecosystems in the Upper Midwest.