The overarching research goal is to utilize Buck Island Ranch as a real-world laboratory to quantify the biodiversity and ecosystem services provided by working ranches. Our work provides the fundamental understanding of how we can maintain and improve ecosystem services, minimize tradeoffs, all while sustaining an economically productive agroecosystem. My research program is focused on: 1) the quantification of multiple ecosystem services provided by working ranches, 2) understanding how ranch management practices affects multiple ecosystem services and disservices, and 3) the drivers and threats to ecosystem services, such as invasive species and climate change. The overarching goal of our work is to discover innovative science-based solutions for sustainable agriculture that is profitable, delivers multiple ecosystem services to society, and reduces negative environmental impacts.

I am actively engaged in multiple national and global science networks including the USDA Long-term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) network, Nutrient Network (nutnet), Disturbance, Resource Addition, and Recovery (Dragnet), Phenocam Network, Grazing Exclosure Consortium, and Community Responses to Resource Experiments (CORRE https://corredata.weebly.com/). These networks have allowed the Agroecology program to scale up the place-based research and provide data from subtropical grasslands to large national and global scale network analyses.

Recent Publications:

• Paudel, S., Gomez-Casanovas, N., Boughton, E. H., Chamberlain, S. D., Wagle, P., Peterson, B. L., ... & Steiner, J. L. (2023). Intensification differentially affects the delivery of multiple ecosystem services in subtropical and temperate grasslands. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 348, 108398.
• Guo, Y., Liao, H. L., Boughton, E. H., Martens-Habbena, W., & Qiu, J. (2023). https://www.archbold-station.org/bibliography/details/287Z2KJY/Effects of land-use intensity, grazing and fire disturbances on soil bacterial and fungal communities in subtropical wetlands. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 345, 108314.
• O'Neil, C. M., Guo, Y., Pierre, S., Boughton, E. H., & Qiu, J. (2023). Invasive snails alter multiple ecosystem functions in subtropical wetlands. Science of The Total Environment, 864, 160939.
• Guo, Y., Boughton, E. H., Liao, H. L., Sonnier, G., & Qiu, J. (2023). Direct and indirect pathways of land management effects on wetland plant litter decomposition. Science of the Total Environment, 854, 158789.
•  Sonnier, G., Boughton, E. H., & Whittington, R. (2023). Long‐term response of wetland plant communities to management intensity, grazing abandonment, and prescribed fire. Ecological Applications, 33(1), e2732.
•  Saha, A., Boughton, E. H., Li, H., Sonniér, G., Gomez‐Casanovas, N., McMillan, N., & Zhang, X. (2022). Evapotranspiration in a subtropical wetland savanna using low‐cost lysimeter, eddy covariance and modelling approaches. Ecohydrology, 15(8), e2475.
• Williams, M. R., Welikhe, P., Bos, J., King, K., Akland, M., Augustine, D., ... & Yasarer, L. (2022). P‐FLUX: https://www.archbold-station.org/bibliography/details/N2QT7IYQ/A phosphorus budget dataset spanning diverse agricultural production systems in the United States and Canada. Journal of Environmental Quality, 51(3), 451-461.
• Boughton, E. H., Gomez-Casanovas, N., Swain, H., Bernacchi, C., Boughton, R. K., Brinsko, K., ... & Sparks, J. (2022). Patch-burn grazing impacts forage resources in subtropical humid grazing lands. Rangeland Ecology & Management, 84, 10-21.
• Price, J. N., Sitters, J., Ohlert, T., Tognetti, P. M., Brown, C. S., Seabloom, E. W., ... & Wardle, G. M. (2022). Evolutionary history of grazing and resources determine herbivore exclusion effects on plant diversity. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 6(9), 1290-1298.
• Lomeu, A., A. Shukla, S. Shukla, G. Kiker, C.-L. Wu, G. Hendricks, EH Boughton, R Sishodia, AC Guzha, HM Swain, PJ Bohlen, DG Jenkins, JE Fauth. 2022. Using Biodiversity Response for Prioritizing Participants and Service Provisions in a Payment-for-Water-Storage Program in the Everglades Basin. Journal of Hydrology 609: 127618.
• Spiegal, S., Webb, N. P., Boughton, E. H., Boughton, R. K., Brymer, A. B., Clark, P. E., ... & Bestelmeyer, B. T. 2022. Measuring the social and ecological performance of agricultural innovations on rangelands: Progress and plans for an indicator framework in the LTAR network. Rangelands 44: 334-344.
• Wade, C., Sonnier, G., & Boughton, E. H. 2022. Does Grazing Affect Soil Carbon in Subtropical Humid Seminatural Grasslands?. Rangeland Ecology & Management, 80, 10-17.