Agro-Ecosystems

Agroecosystems are communities of plants and animals interacting with their physical and chemical environments that have been modified by people to produce food, fibre, fuel and other products for human consumption and processing. An area used for agricultural production, e.g. a field, is seen as a complex system in which ecological processes found under natural conditions also occur, e.g. nutrient cycling, predator/prey interactions, competition, symbiosis and successional changes (Altieri 1995). Malta has interesting agro-ecosystems that have been shaped since when the first dwellers came to Malta thousands of years ago.