Stacy Philpott, faculty director and professor of Environmental Studies at UCSC, and an interdisciplinary research team have been funded by two USDA-NIFA grants to study impacts of local and landscape management on insect diversity and traits, plant-pollinator and herbivore-natural enemy networks, and ecosystem services in urban agroecosystems on California’s central coast.
The goal of this research is to build a scientific understanding of urban garden ecology, to disseminate management information to urban gardeners, and to improve urban agricultural sustainability for people and the environment.
You can read much more about the specific studies, results and management recommendations at urbangardenecology.com/.
Center for Agroecology/UCSC Participants: Stacy Philpott, Peter Bichier, Azucena Lucatero, Edith Gonzales
Collaborators: Shalene Jha (U Texas), Heidi Liere (Seattle U), Brenda Lin (CSIRO-Australia)
Funding: U.S. Department of Agriculture.