Humans make extensive use of land, water, energy, labor, and other resources in the production of crops and pastures. We do this because it is essential to our survival and well-being. As world population grows so does the demand for continuing success in agriculture, and as more land is used in agriculture, concern for loss of natural ecosystems increases. The conflict between production and conservation can best be resolved with cropping systems that are both efficient and sustainable.

Agricultural management is engaged with fields of plants and areas of land. This requires knowledge of whole-plant behavior under crowded conditions and of the interactions of plant communities with aerial and soil environments. These organismal and higher levels of biological organization are the subject fields of ecology, but explanation of behavior at these levels depends upon integration of relevant knowledge spanning lower levels from molecules and cells to organs. Ecology thus can be characterized as an integration of other disciplines. In turn, however, it provides specialist disciplines with context and relevance and, further, explains that in isolation they rarely effect system outcome. Crop ecology has additional dimensions in agricultural technology that interface with engineering, the social sciences, and perspectives provided through history.

The tools of crop ecology (strong basic physics, chemistry and mathematics) are not different than those of other biological disciplines. Mathematical models are especially useful in integration and are generally appropriate to crop ecology.