Insecticides, more than herbicides, land use, and climate, are associated with declines in butterfly species richness and abundance in the American Midwest.

Mounting evidence shows overall insect abundances are in decline globally. Habitat loss, climate change, and pesticides have all been implicated, but their relative effects have never been evaluated in a comprehensive large-scale study. We harmonized 17 years of land use, climate, multiple classes of pesticides, and butterfly survey data across 81 counties in five states in the US Midwest.

Economic Assessment of Morel ( spp.) Foraging in Michigan, USA.

Wild-foraged mushrooms represent a natural resource that provides economic value to foragers through both market and nonmarket recreational channels. Despite the importance of non-timber forest resources for sustainable management of forestlands, little attention has been paid to forages for wild mushrooms, they choose to forage, they go, and is generated. This report draws upon survey data from 78 foragers who are certified to sell their mushrooms and 85 noncertified foraging enthusiasts.

Economic Impact of Fluopyram-Amended Seed Treatments to Reduce Soybean Yield Loss Associated with Sudden Death Syndrome.

Soybean () sudden death syndrome (SDS), caused by , is a key limitation in reaching soybean yield potential, stemming from incomplete disease management through cultural practices and partial host resistance. A fungicidal seed treatment was released in 2014 with the active ingredient fluopyram and was the first chemical management strategy to reduce soybean yield loss stemming from SDS. Although farm level studies have found fluopyram profitable, we were curious to discover whether fluopyram would be beneficial nationally if targeted to soybean fields at risk for SDS yield loss.

Long-term research avoids spurious and misleading trends in sustainability attributes of no-till.

Agricultural management recommendations based on short-term studies can produce findings inconsistent with long-term reality. Here, we test the long-term environmental sustainability and profitability of continuous no-till agriculture on yield, soil water availability, and N O fluxes. Using a moving window approach, we investigate the development and stability of several attributes of continuous no-till as compared to conventional till agriculture over a 29-year period at a site in the upper Midwest, US.

Cellulosic biofuel contributions to a sustainable energy future: Choices and outcomes.

Cellulosic crops are projected to provide a large fraction of transportation energy needs by mid-century. However, the anticipated land requirements are substantial, which creates a potential for environmental harm if trade-offs are not sufficiently well understood to create appropriately prescriptive policy. Recent empirical findings show that cellulosic bioenergy concerns related to climate mitigation, biodiversity, reactive nitrogen loss, and crop water use can be addressed with appropriate crop, placement, and management choices.

Farming for Ecosystem Services: An Ecological Approach to Production Agriculture.

A balanced assessment of ecosystem services provided by agriculture requires a systems-level socioecological understanding of related management practices at local to landscape scales. The results from 25 years of observation and experimentation at the Kellogg Biological Station long-term ecological research site reveal services that could be provided by intensive row-crop ecosystems. In addition to high yields, farms could be readily managed to contribute clean water, biocontrol and other biodiversity benefits, climate stabilization, and long-term soil fertility, thereby helping meet society's need for agriculture that is economically and environmentally sustainable.

Can dispersed biomass processing protect the environment and cover the bottom line for biofuel?

This paper compares environmental and profitability outcomes for a centralized biorefinery for cellulosic ethanol that does all processing versus a biorefinery linked to a decentralized array of local depots that pretreat biomass into concentrated briquettes. The analysis uses a spatial bioeconomic model that maximizes profit from crop and energy products, subject to the requirement that the biorefinery must be operated at full capacity. The model draws upon biophysical crop input-output coefficients simulated with the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model as well as market input and output prices, spatial transportation costs, ethanol yields from biomass, and biorefinery capital and operational costs.

Optimal control of soybean aphid in the presence of natural enemies and the implied value of their ecosystem services.

By suppressing pest populations, natural enemies provide an important ecosystem service that maintains the stability of agricultural ecosystems systems and potentially mitigates producers' pest control costs. Integrating natural control services into decisions about pesticide-based control has the potential to significantly improve the economic efficiency of pesticide use, with socially desirable outcomes. Two gaps have hindered the incorporation of natural enemies into pest management decision rules: (1) insufficient knowledge of pest and predator population dynamics and (2) lack of a decision framework for the economic tradeoffs among pest control options.

Returns to integrated pest management research and outreach for soybean aphid.

Soybean aphid, Aphis glycines Matsumura, is a major invasive pest that has caused substantial yield loss and increased insecticide use in the United States since its discovery in 2000. Using the economic surplus approach, we estimate the economic benefits of U.S.

Probability of cost-effective management of soybean aphid (Hemiptera: Aphididae) in North America.

Soybean aphid, Aphis glycines Matsumura (Hemiptera: Aphididae), is one of the most damaging pests of soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merrill, in the midwestern United States and Canada. We compared three soybean aphid management techniques in three midwestern states (Iowa, Michigan, and Minnesota) for a 3-yr period (2005-2007).

Increasing corn for biofuel production reduces biocontrol services in agricultural landscapes.

Increased demand for corn grain as an ethanol feedstock is altering U.S. agricultural landscapes and the ecosystem services they provide.

Hidden health costs of pesticide use in Zimbabwe's smallholder cotton growers.

Balancing the numerous benefits that may accrue from pesticide use on cotton, farmers face health hazards. Pesticide-induced acute symptoms significantly increased the cost-of-illness in a survey of 280 smallholder cotton growers in two districts of Zimbabwe. Cotton growers lost a mean of 180 Zimbabwe dollars in Sanyati and 316 Zimbabwe dollars per year in Chipinge on pesticide-related direct and indirect acute health effects.