Sustainable Agricultural Landscapes Laboratory

The production of food, fibre and fuel now dominates much of the terrestrial landscape, consequently altering the flow of nutrients and energy, the availability of clean water and the amount of habitat available for dwindling global biodiversity. The SAL Lab seeks to provide a better understanding of these changes across a diversity of agro-ecosystems and social and economic contexts. A major focus of the lab is to evaluate the multiple environmental impacts and ecological interactions for various agricultural management options. Among the many environmental outcomes of agricultural production, there are likely tradeoffs, but also synergies. Many of these tradeoffs and synergies are best understood at the landscape scale. The SAL Lab thus works to scale analyses from the plot and field to the landscape and beyond.