Human drivers, biophysical changes, and climatic variation affecting contemporary cropping proportions in the northern prairie of the U.S
Links
- More information: Publisher Index Page (via DOI)
- Download citation as: RIS | Dublin Core
Abstract
Grassland to cropland conversion in the northern prairie of the United States has been a topic of recent land use change studies. Within this region more corn and soybeans are grown now (2017) than in the past, but most studies to date have not examined multi-decadal trends and the synergistic web of socio-ecological driving forces involved, opting instead for short-term analyses and easily targeted agents of change. This paper examines the coalescing of biophysical and socioeconomic driving forces that have brought change to the agricultural landscape of this region between 1980 and 2013. While land conversion has occurred, most of the region’s cropland in 2013 had been previously cropped by the early 1980s. Furthermore, the agricultural conditions in which crops were grown during those three decades have changed considerably because of non-biophysical alterations to production practices and changing agricultural markets. Findings revealed that human drivers played more of a role in crop change than biophysical changes, that blending quantitative and qualitative methods to tell a more complete story of crop change in this region was difficult because of the synergistic characteristics of the drivers involved, and that more research is needed to understand how farmers make crop choice decisions.
Study Area
| Publication type | Article |
|---|---|
| Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
| Title | Human drivers, biophysical changes, and climatic variation affecting contemporary cropping proportions in the northern prairie of the U.S |
| Series title | Journal of Land Use Science |
| DOI | 10.1080/1747423X.2017.1413433 |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 1-2 |
| Publication Date | December 11, 2017 |
| Year Published | 2018 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis |
| Contributing office(s) | Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center |
| Description | 27 p. |
| First page | 32 |
| Last page | 58 |
| Country | United States |
| State | Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota |