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Linking Resilience Theory and Diffusion of Innovations Theory to Understand the Potential for Perennials in the U.S View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Digital Repository @ Iowa State University Natural Resource Ecology and Management Natural Resource Ecology and Management Publications 2009 Linking Resilience Theory and Diffusion of Innovations Theory to Understand the Potential for Perennials in the U.S. Corn Belt Ryan C. Atwell Iowa State University Lisa A. Schulte Iowa State University, [email protected] Lynne M. Westphal United States Forest Service Follow this and additional works at: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/nrem_pubs Part of the Agriculture Commons, Forest Sciences Commons, and the Natural Resources Management and Policy Commons The ompc lete bibliographic information for this item can be found at http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ nrem_pubs/8. For information on how to cite this item, please visit http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ howtocite.html. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Natural Resource Ecology and Management at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Natural Resource Ecology and Management Publications by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Linking Resilience Theory and Diffusion of Innovations Theory to Understand the Potential for Perennials in the U.S. Corn Belt Abstract In the last 200 yr, more than 80% of the land in the U.S. Corn Belt agro-ecosystem has been converted from natural perennial vegetation to intensive agricultural production of row crops. Despite research showing how re-integration of perennial vegetation, e.g., cover crops, pasture, riparian buffers, and restored wetlands, at strategic landscape positions can bolster declining regional ecosystem functions, the amount of land area devoted to row crop production in the Corn Belt continues to increase. As this region enters a time of fast- paced and uncertain reorganization driven by the emerging bioeconomy, changes in land use will continue to take place that will impact the resilience of the Corn Belt’s linked social and ecological systems for years to come. Both resilience theory and the diffusion of innovations theory investigate how change is brought about in systems through the adaptation and innovation of social actors. In this paper, we integrate these two frameworks in the analysis of 33 in-depth interviews to improve our understanding of how rural Corn Belt stakeholders make conservation decisions in the midst of an uncertain future. Interview data indicate that the adoption of conservation practices is based not only on immediate profitability but also on the interplay between contextual factors at three distinct levels of the system: compatibility with farm priorities, profitability, practices, and technologies; community-level reinforcement through local social networks, norms, and support structures; and consistent, straightforward, flexible, and well-targeted incentives and regulations issuing from regional institutions. Interviewees suggest that the multiscale drivers that currently support the continued expansion of row crop production could be realigned with conservation objectives in landscapes of the future. Adaptation of social actors through collaborative learning at the community level may be instrumental in brokering the sort of multiscale system change that would lead to more widespread adoption of perennial cover types in the Corn Belt. Keywords adaptive co-management, agriculture, Iowa, learning, nonpoint source pollution, restoration, social-ecological systems, row crops, Corn Belt Disciplines Agriculture | Forest Sciences | Natural Resources Management and Policy Comments This article is from Ecology and Society 14, no. 1 (2009): 30. This article is available at Iowa State University Digital Repository: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/nrem_pubs/8 Copyright © 2009 by the author(s). Published here under license by the Resilience Alliance. Atwell, R. C., L. A. Schulte, and L. M. Westphal. 2008. Linking resilience theory and diffusion of innovations theory to understand the potential for perennials in the U.S. Corn Belt. Ecology and Society 14 (1): 30. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss1/art30/ Research Linking Resilience Theory and Diffusion of Innovations Theory to Understand the Potential for Perennials in the U.S. Corn Belt Ryan C. Atwell 1, Lisa A. Schulte 1, and Lynne M. Westphal 2 ABSTRACT. In the last 200 yr, more than 80% of the land in the U.S. Corn Belt agro-ecosystem has been converted from natural perennial vegetation to intensive agricultural production of row crops. Despite research showing how re-integration of perennial vegetation, e.g., cover crops, pasture, riparian buffers, and restored wetlands, at strategic landscape positions can bolster declining regional ecosystem functions, the amount of land area devoted to row crop production in the Corn Belt continues to increase. As this region enters a time of fast-paced and uncertain reorganization driven by the emerging bioeconomy, changes in land use will continue to take place that will impact the resilience of the Corn Belt’s linked social and ecological systems for years to come. Both resilience theory and the diffusion of innovations theory investigate how change is brought about in systems through the adaptation and innovation of social actors. In this paper, we integrate these two frameworks in the analysis of 33 in-depth interviews to improve our understanding of how rural Corn Belt stakeholders make conservation decisions in the midst of an uncertain future. Interview data indicate that the adoption of conservation practices is based not only on immediate profitability but also on the interplay between contextual factors at three distinct levels of the system: compatibility with farm priorities, profitability, practices, and technologies; community-level reinforcement through local social networks, norms, and support structures; and consistent, straightforward, flexible, and well-targeted incentives and regulations issuing from regional institutions. Interviewees suggest that the multiscale drivers that currently support the continued expansion of row crop production could be realigned with conservation objectives in landscapes of the future. Adaptation of social actors through collaborative learning at the community level may be instrumental in brokering the sort of multiscale system change that would lead to more widespread adoption of perennial cover types in the Corn Belt. Key Words: adaptive co-management; agriculture; Iowa; learning; nonpoint source pollution; restoration; scale; social-ecological systems; row crops; Corn Belt INTRODUCTION history of change based on the interplay of natural processes and the decisions of its human inhabitants Change is both a disruptive and a renewing force in (Axelrod 1985). This region is currently undergoing natural and human systems (Gunderson and Holling a period of rapid and uncertain reorganization 2002, Walker et al. 2006). When change is driven driven by the increased demand for bioenergy crops by collective human decision making, its (Hinkamp et al. 2007). Despite the ecological and ramifications can be very difficult to predict because social deficits associated with agricultural many plausible courses of action may be chosen. In intensification, the amount of land devoted to row natural resource management, the dynamic crop production is continuing to increase in decisions of social actors often heighten the response to commodity markets, public policies, difficulty involved in addressing what are already cultural norms, and farmer decisions (Secchi et al. complex ecological questions. 2008). Although the problems inherent in this trajectory are recognized (Duffy 2006, EPA 2007), This is the case in agro-ecosystems of the it is unclear how they might be addressed in the northcentral U.S. Corn Belt, a region with a long midst of an uncertain future. 1Iowa State University, 2U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station Ecology and Society 14(1): 30 http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss1/art30/ Resilience theory (Gunderson and Holling 2002) drainage, and stream channelization have led to the and diffusion of innovations theory (Rodgers 2003) loss of dynamic system characteristics over time, e. are two interdisciplinary avenues of inquiry that g., natural pest and flood control, diversified focus on how human decision making can influence, farming systems, rural commerce and population, and be influenced by, the process of change. water purification (Keeney and Kemp 2002, Schulte Resilience theory is rooted in the ecological et al. 2006, Nassauer et al. 2007). sciences, is in its theoretical adolescence, and is currently receiving widespread attention from and In the last decade, the ecological imbalance in the being applied by scientists and practitioners from Corn Belt has become a problem of national priority. diverse fields (Liu et al. 2007). Resilience theory is High levels of nutrients, e.g., nitrogen and also receiving criticism in some quarters because of phosphorous, associated with agriculture in the its weak integration and appropriation of social region’s rivers have been implicated as the primary science theory and methodologies and because it drivers of the hypoxic dead zone downstream in the oversimplifies complex problems to incorporate Gulf of Mexico (EPA 2007, Nassauer et al. 2007). complex social phenomena as quantifiable variables Recent research shows
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