Solving water quality problems in agricultural landscapes: New approaches for these nonlinear, multiprocess, multiscale systems

Changes in climate and agricultural practices are putting pressure on agroenvironmental systems all over the world. Predicting the effects of future management or conservation actions has proven exceptionally challenging in these complex landscapes. We present a perspective, gained from a decade of research and stakeholder involvement in the Minnesota River Basin, where research findings have influenced solutions and policy in directions not obvious at the outset. Our approach has focused on identifying places, times, and processes of accelerated change and developing reduced complexity predictive frameworks that can inform mitigation actions.