Many native ecosystems in North America have been replaced by annual monocultures for agriculture. Ecosystem degradation by this approach to agriculture is well documented. Broadly speaking, we hypothesize that agroecosystems mimicking the structure and function of native ecosystems may address problems caused by extensive annual monocropping. Integrating approaches such as perennial crops, polyculture, silvopasture, habitat restoration, and intensive disturbance management could provide benefits to farmers, society, and the ecosphere. Research and development of these novel agroecosystems requires collaborating consortia of farmers, agricultural and conservation organizations, scientific disciplines, and rural communities. To facilitate synthesis across these sectors, we have developed a crowd-sourced network within a map-based web tool.
Results/Conclusions
In developing the network, we documented a broad array of 2,000+ stakeholders in perennial agriculture and associated land uses in North America, including individuals and institutions comprised of farmers; food merchants; supply and service providers; educators; and researchers. These stakeholders are principally among the second of three user-classes we identified for the web tool: 1) public web traffic, 2) members who may create a profile and generate data associated with one or more points on the map, and 3) collaborating partners in research and education. Facilitated user testing suggested updates that improved user participation, such as filters that query for map points with data of interest. These preliminary results suggest that an interactive map-based web tool can effectively facilitate transdisciplinary and participatory action research in agroecology or other applied fields of ecology. Potential future directions include integration with other networks and data platforms; expanded research participation functions; and custom features for research and educational applications.