Harrison Gregory Fried

1 Introduction A core tenet of social-ecological systems research is that “ecosystems are not so simple, and neither are the institutions that govern their use” (Folke et al. 2007: 29). The sustainability of modern environmental management can be shaped by how effectively stakeholders who are ecologically interdependent can coordinate with each other.

Root systems that improve resource uptake and penetrate compacted soil (hardpan) are important for improving soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) productivity in optimal and sub-optimal environments. The objectives of this research were to evaluate a soybean germplasm collection of 49 genotypes for root traits, determine whether root traits are related with plant height, shoot dry weight, chlorophyll index, and seed size, and identify genotypes that can penetrate a hardpan.