Jonathan Hickman never thought his scientific interests would lead him into agricultural research. Trained as an ecologist, he wanted his work to have a global impact. But Hickman soon saw that the work of such prominent ecologists as Pamela Matson of Stanford University, who documents how agricultural intensification in the tropics increases atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, includes an oft-ignored ecological variable - human activity. Hickman realized that some of the most important questions in ecology - such as tracing human-caused changes to the carbon cycle - were best studied down on the farm. After all, agriculture represents a tremendous anthropogenic impact on land use, and affects biodiversity as well as climate.
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