In April 1993 Peter D. Moore wrote an article called the Better Cycling in China. The question posed in this study was can farming practices be employed in the area similar to those in an ecosystem despite the prevalence of anthropogenic influence. It was Moore’s stance that ecosystem models could be successful in producing better nutrient cycling in ecosystems despite of human prevalence in an area. The author supported his stance by citing a study conducted by J. Y. Guo, and A. D. Bradshaw on the nutrient and energy cycles in the Chinese farming structure. The specific area studied was in Jiangsu Province, a small village which has previously been self sustaining. In this study the researchers employed different practices in order facilitate a greater preservation of nutrients and a more substantial output of energy to for anthropogenic use. Some of the experimental practices employed in order to achieve the goal was harvesting vegetation such as grasses and feeding the vegetation to fish. They also deepened the fishponds in order to increase sunlight penetration and thus increase the amount of phytoplankton. The increase in depth by 2 meters more than the standard depths caused the phytoplankton to increase to 8.4 tons. In addition, the researchers employed a practice of feeding livestock the vegetation from the bottom of the pond, and using the fecal matter from their pigs as a form of fertilizer. After putting these practices in place, the town also saw an increase in the fish population by 370 percent. By using the manure in order to enrich the soil, the village saw 20 reduction in the money spent to feed the pigs. The combination of all three of the modifications led to a 25 percent increase in the proceeds from ...
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...is still being researched and cannot give definitive figures as to the cost benefits. Nutrient cycling when done in a sustainable way is a efficient and proven way to increase crop yields, and sustain larger groups of people without taking from the land. However, I support the ideas of looking at increasing crop yields and nutrient cycling by approaching the different ecosystem services when using ecosystem concepts.
Works Cited
Riccardo Bommarco, David Kleijn, Simon G. Potts, Ecological Intensification: harnessing ecosystem services for food security, Trends in Ecology &
Evolution, Volume 28, Issue 4, April 2013, Pages 230-238, ISSN 0169-
5347, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2012.10.012.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016953471200273X)
Moore, Peter D. "Better Cycling in China." Nature 362.6423 (1993): 788. Print.