The stored grain ecosystem: a global perspective
Dunkel, F.V.
Journal of stored products research. Vol: 28 Issue: 2 Pages: 73-97.
1992
บทคัดย่อ
Ecosystem principles and processes, such as biological succession, population dynamics, niche concept, limits to growth, and food webs apply to grain storage systems, as well as to forests, oceans, lakes, prairies, and preharvest agroecosystems. In 1989, Odum classified the food-storage system as a human-subsidized, solar-powered ecosystem, one of the four main ecosystems of the world. A grain storage ecosystem is a complex system that can be described in several scales. One may consider the storage structure and its contents as an entire system, or one may consider a group of storage structures as an archipelago of ecological islands linked by transportation and commerce. Government policies and consumer demands are part of the environment that must be considered in effective economic management of the stored grain ecosystem, The grain storage system is part of the postharvest ecosystem, a larger system which extends from harvest to consumption. An understanding of the interrelationship of biological and physical factors, and selection pressures in the system is essential to making sound decisions about the long term directions of postharvest research, as well as the daily management of grain and other food commodities in the postharvest system. In this paper, ecosystem principles are used to draw together progress which has been made in understanding: (1) the physical elements, defined in part by the structure, (2) the biological elements, including human society, and (3) the interrelationships of physical and biological elements in postharvest systems throughout the world. Suggestions given for future directions in ecosystem-based research on the postharvest grain system are drawn from systems in several areas of the world and include examples of reverse technology.