Cross-scale issues in agriculture and ecosystems research (invited Scirus report)

VIGLIZZO, E.F.

SciTopics. Scirus Research Summaries by Experts

Scirus

Lugar: Stockholm; Año: 2009; p. 1 - 4

Scale-oriented knowledge is increasingly demanded by agronomists,environmentalists, ecologists, land managers, policy makers and developmentagents who have to make decisions at different scales, the plot, the field, thefarm, the watershed or the region. But knowledge availability is asymmetric.While knowledge on small-scale issues is rather abundant, knowledge on largeandcross-scale processes is less common. Cross-scale studies are thus fullyjustified because knowledge at one scale is normally insufficient to explainbehavior at larger and smaller scales. However, beyond necessity, cross-scaleresearch has to face multiple troubles.