The science of agroecology has stressed the significance of biodiversity conservation in agroecosystems and the agricultural matrix to achieve social and environmental sustainability goals.

Our lab studies the links between biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, and the effects of environmental change and habitat simplification on ecological and social communities. This research is relevant because agricultural systems continue to experience a shift towards high-input agriculture, which threatens biodiversity and the social and human communities that depend on it. Industrial agriculture is a great contributor to climate change and biodiversity loss, yet agroecosystems can also provide solutions to global challenges.

To explore these links, our lab uses theories and methods in community ecology, and we often use insect communities as model systems because they are incredibly diverse, and participate in complex interactions, yet they are greatly affected by climate change and habitat simplification.

Publications:

• Jiménez-Soto, E., Cowal, S., Lopez, A. Food Sovereignty and Ecological Knowledge Among Migrant Farmworkers: The Role of Agrobiodiversity in Resistance and Autonomy. (Submitted to Elementa Science of the Anthropocene, Special Issue on Agrobiodiversity on Oct 2023).

• Mieles, A.E., Voss, M.A. and Jiménez-Soto, E., 2023. Effects of Peri-Urbanization on Coastal Sage Scrub Ant Species in Baja California. Diversity, 15(9), p.953.

• Jiménez-Soto, E. Fairbairn, M. Muramoto, J. and Shennan, C. Agriculture against the wall: disabling conditions and opportunities for scaling up an agroecological transformation in California’s strawberry landscape. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. (In revisions, submitted in 2023).

• Soto-Pinto, L., Colmenares, S.E., Kanter, M.B., López Cruz, A., Estrada-Lugo, E.I.J., Herrera Hernández, B. and Jiménez-Soto, E. 2022. Contributions of traditional agroforestry systems to food and other social and environmental benefits. Contradictions and synergies in Chiapas, Mexico. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, p.506.

• Jiménez -Soto, E. 2020. The political ecology of shaded coffee plantations: conservation narratives and the everyday-lived-experience of farmworkers. The Journal of Peasant Studies, pp.1-20.

• Jiménez ‐Soto, E., Morris, J.R., Letourneau, D.K. and Philpott, S.M., 2019. Vegetation connectivity increases ant activity and potential for ant‐provided biocontrol services in a tropical agroforest. Biotropica, 51(1), pp.50-61.