Metadata Analysis Review of Integrated Agroecosystem Components

Explanation of the concepts related to integrated agroecosystems is discussed in different focus areas of agricultural science. The need for integration is important in terms of climate smart agriculture imperatives. The aim of this study is to understand how these areas are linked for the purpose of multidisciplinary research, which has become necessary due to the need to respond to climate change holistically. The objective of this study was to explain how three broad areas related to agroecosystem research can be linked based on available publications in the past ten years. For the purpose of this study, Soil-Plant-Atmosphere Continuum (SPAC), Water-energy-food nexus (WEF) and Sustainable Agriculture (SA) were selected as high-level domains in integrated agroecosystem research. The selection was informed by a review of literature published in the past decade and beyond. Identification of more specific research publication fields was performed using a binary indicator method based on two randomly selected key words to enhance reliability. The outcome was reduced to twenty-five research fields which were ranked as representative entities for the purpose of establishing the association of SPAC, WEF and SA with current literature. Reliability of research sources was established using the popular Source Normalised Impact per Paper (SNIP) guidelines. Regression analysis was used to relate the research domains and research fields. The conclusion of the study is that SPAC is the most highly integrated agroecosystem research area followed by SA. The WEF domain is ranked lowest. The visibility of research domains is confirmed by the impact of publications. This suggests that there is a need to escalate the value of the three research domains and create an integrated approach to integrated agroecosystem innovations. There is also a need to purposefully establish reasonable overlaps between SPAC, WEF and SA. This may be possible through multidisciplinary methods of data collection, which may create integration of information technology and indigenous knowledge systems. Key words: agroecosystem, integrated agriculture, matrix, soil-plant-atmosphere, sustainable agriculture, water-energy-food