My research asks how we can best manage agricultural systems to simultaneously promote environmental wellbeing, conserve biodiversity, control agricultural pests, produce safe and sufficient food, and support farmer livelihoods and wellbeing. To do so, I use ecological theory to identify what contexts have the best overall outcomes. Much of my research examines how landscape context (such as the amount of natural land cover in a 1-2 km radius around a field) interacts with how diversified a farm is (such as growing crops and livestock together) to influence how beneficial or harmful biodiversity is to agricultural production. My research uses a combination of large-scale field studies (e.g., Smith et al. (2020, 2021)) and meta-analysis techniques (e.g., Smith et al. (2020a, b)) to answer these questions. Altogether, my research takes a multidisciplinary “team science” approach to understand when and where different farming practices are likely to result in the best outcomes for biodiversity, crop yields, farmer wellbeing, and food safety.
A new line in my research program is investigating inequity in peer review. This research seeks to understand the extent of and solutions to mitigate peer review bias (Smith et al. 2023). This work arose from observing bias in peer review as an author, coauthor, and reviewer and was accomplished through building and leading a team of amazing early career researchers. We have ongoing projects focusing on expanding peer review bias research and increasing accessibility in academia.
I am currently a postdoctoral fellow at Michigan State University supported both by a USDA Postdoctoral Fellowship through the Center for Global Change and Earth Observations and an MSU Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior.
Email: smitho17(at)msu.edu