Division 2 : Field Scale Agroecology
		Chairman: Muriel Valantin-Morison (F)

Field Scale Agroecology : The cultivated field as an ecosystem

This division is targeted to the analysis and management of a cultivated field as a complex -and generally heterogeneous- system made of a plant population, a soil and the diseases, pests and fauna. It would focus on the interactions between these components and the design of crop management systems and would therefore largely host research in agroecology. Crop successions and long term evolution of soil fertility, weeds and pathogens dynamics are clearly in  the scope of this division.  On station and on farm Experimental Agronomy and  Crop Modelling for ecological intensification and multifunctional crops are key methological challenges for this division..
The objectives here are : (i) to give a scientific recognition to this “field agronomy” which is still dynamic  but may disappear between integrative biology and landscape agronomy, (ii) attract the many researchers working on the effects of cropping systems on soil biology, on ecology or on plant diseases and pests whose scientific discipline is not agronomy but are increasingly collaborating with us around the concept of agroecology.