Part II - Physical and chemical environments
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
Animals with thermoregulatory abilities and mobility can seek or avoid certain features of current weather. In contrast, terrestrial plants are rooted in place and must accept that rates of their metabolic processes are determined by ambient conditions. Crop ecology gives special emphasis to environment as the main determinant of what will grow, how rapidly, and for how long.
Crop communities extend a strong influence over their local microenvironment. Nearly all cropping practices are directed toward, or have the effect of, modifying chemical and physical aspects of that environment. The next two chapters deal specifically with these issues, beginning in Chapter 6 with the aerial environment, giving emphasis to radiation, and continuing in Chapter 7 with properties of soils.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Crop EcologyProductivity and Management in Agricultural Systems, pp. 129 - 130Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1992