An agricultural ecosystem, which is also known as an agroecosystem, is a place where agricultural production—a farm, for example—is understood as an ecosystem. When something like a farm field is examined from an ecosystem viewpoint, food production can be understood as part of a whole, including the complex kinds of materials entering the system, or inputs, and the materials leaving the system, or outputs. At the same time, the ways that all of the parts of the system are interconnected and interact are of great importance.

Humans alter and manipulate ecosystems for the purpose of establishing agricultural production, and in the process, can make the resulting agroecosystem very different from a natural ecosystem. At the same time, however, by understanding how ecosystem processes, structures, and characteristics are modified, management of an agricultural system can become more stable, less dependent on inputs brought in from...