IGN 5-7
Ecosystem complementarity through STRIPs

Tuesday, August 6, 2013
101E, Minneapolis Convention Center
Lisa A. Schulte, Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Matthew J. Helmers, Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA
J. Gordon Arbuckle, Sociology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Pauline Drobney, Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Prairie City, IA
Mary A. Harris, Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Randall K. Kolka, Northern Research Station, USDA Forest Service, Grand Rapids, MN
Matt Liebman, Agronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Matthew E. O'Neal, Entomology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA
John C. Tyndall, Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Overcoming the food-energy-environment “trilemma” poses a major societal challenge. Strategically integrating strips of native prairie vegetation within row-cropped agroecosystems does just this.  A replicated watershed experiment in Iowa, USA, called STRIPs, establishes how prairie strips slow and purify water and provide habitat for native biodiversity without negatively affecting adjacent row-crops. The strips could also be harvested for bioenergy production. Prairie strips are a more cost effective means for achieving complementary ecosystem benefits from aglands than other land-use options.