Agrophysics: Encyclopedia - Agrophysics

Agrophysics

Agrophysics is a new branch of science bordering on physics and agronomy, whose objects of study are the ecosystem and the biological object affected by human activity, studied and described using the methods of physical sciences.

Agrophysics is closely related to biophysics, but is restricted to the biology of the plants and animals involved in agricultural activities and biodiversity. It is different from biophysics in having the necessity of taking into account the specific features of the research objects, which involves the knowledge of agricultural technology, biotechnology and genetics.

Agrophysics is close to certain fundamental sciences like biology, whose methods and knowledge it utilizes (especially in the field of environmental ecology and plant physiology), and physics, from which it acquires the research methods, especially that of physical experiment and model. The scope of interest of Agrophysics is not focused solely on technical problems of agronomy and on practical implementation of sciences and that are aspects that makes it different from research of agricultural engineering which provides grounds for classifying Agrophysics as the fundamental sciences.

Physical models are ready to solve either local or global aspects of behaviour of the complex systems to be studied, including of energy consumption, food safety etc. The needs of agronomy concerning the study of the complex soil-plant-atmosphere system lay at the root of the emergnece of Agrophysics. The scope of the branch of science, originally limited to the study of relations within the ecosystem, expanded over time onto influencing the properties of agricultural crops and produce as foods and raw postharvest materials, and onto the issues of quality assessment.

A research centre that is focused on the development of the science and defines its unique character is the Institute of Agrophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences in Lublin.

Agrophysics, utilizing the achievements of exact sciences for solving major problems of agriculture, is involved in study of materials and processes occurring in the production and processing of agricultural crops, with particular emphasis on the condition of the environment and the quality of farming materials and food productions.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Agrophysics", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki