The dynamics of experimental arable weed communities under different management practices

1996 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 799-808 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. McCloskey ◽  
L.G. Firbank ◽  
A.R. Watkinson ◽  
D.J. Webb
Weed Science ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 705-712 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard G. Smith

A trait-based community assembly approach to weed management may enhance our understanding of how weed communities respond to specific management practices and increase the utility of weed management based on ecological principles. Therefore, identifying management practices that operate as assembly filters and the species traits upon which they act is an important first step in developing a more predictive weed science. Here, I report results from a 3-yr investigation of the effects of timing of annual tillage (spring vs. fall) on the annual assembly of arable weed communities. The timing of tillage had consistent and dramatic effects on the composition of weed communities; spring tillage led to weed communities dominated by early emerging spring annual forbs and C4 grasses, and fall tillage led to communities dominated by later-emerging forbs and C3 grasses. Traits determining a species' susceptibility to tillage time likely include germination syndrome and life cycle, both of which influence how species respond to changes in soil resource levels and light availability driven by seasonal disturbance regime. Manipulating the timing of tillage and other major soil disturbances may therefore be an important tool for managers interested in influencing community composition or targeting species with similar germination and life-history traits.


1992 ◽  
Vol 70 (10) ◽  
pp. 1931-1939 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. R. T. Dale ◽  
A. G. Thomas ◽  
E. A. John

The relationship between the weed communities and environmental variables such as soil, crop, and management was investigated in two provinces of Canada. The frequencies of weed species were recorded in cereal and oilseed fields in Saskatchewan (2244 fields over 4 years) and Manitoba (864 fields over 3 years), Canada. Information on some of the physical characteristics of the fields and on the management practices imposed on them was also collected, in part by questionnaire. The two kinds of data were ordinated together using canonical correspondence analysis to assess the relationships between the species and the environmental variables. In the Saskatchewan data, there was a clear and consistent separation of the species into groups along an axis correlated with soil zone and the associated climatic gradient. In the Manitoba data, the same groups of species did not separate as clearly or as consistently, although geographic region was a major determinant of the weed communities. The greater variability may be due to the fact that the gradient of soil types is much more restricted in Manitoba and not as closely correlated with climatic conditions. In both provinces, culture practices were less important as correlates of the weed community composition than soil type or, to a certain extent, the previous crop. Key words: canonical correspondence analysis, cereal crops, oil seed crops.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Charlotte Bopp ◽  
Elena Kazakou ◽  
Aurelie Metay ◽  
Guillaume Fried

Winegrowers have diversified their weed management practices over the last two decades changing the structure and the composition of weed communities. Complementary to taxonomic studies, trait-based approaches are promising ways for a better understanding of weed communities responses to environmental and agronomic filters. In the present study, the impacts of climate, soil characteristics, seasons and weed management practices (chemical weeding, tillage and mowing) were assessed on weed communities from 46 plots in three French wine-growing regions (Champagne, Languedoc and Rhone valley). These agro-environmental gradients structuring weed communities according to their combinations of traits were highlighted using multivariate analysis (RLQ). The impacts of these filters on Community Weighted Means (CWM) and Community Weighted Variance (CWV) of weed communities were analysed using mixed and null modelling. Our results showed that spatio-temporal and weed management practices variables explained from 13% to 48% of the total variance of CWM (specific leaf area, maximum height, seed mass, flowering onset and duration and lateral spread). Region, seasonality and management practices explained 53%, 28% and 19% of CWM marginal variance, respectively. Weed management impacted CWM and CWV through two main gradients: (i) a soil disturbance gradient with high mechanical disturbance of soil in tilled plots and low mechanical disturbance in chemically weeded plots and (ii) a vegetation cover gradient with high vegetation abundance in mowed plots compared to more bare soils in tilled and chemically weeded plots. In Languedoc, chemical weeding filtered weed communities with ruderal strategy trait values (low seed mass, small-stature) while mowed communities were more competitive (higher seed mass, higher stature and lower SLA). In Languedoc and Champagne, tillage favoured communities with high seed mass that increases the viability of buried seeds and high lateral spread values associated to the ability to resprout after tillage. This study demonstrated that trait-based approaches can be successfully applied to perennial cropping systems such as vineyards, in order to understand community assembly to better guide weed management practices.


2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 541-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard M. Gunton ◽  
Sandrine Petit ◽  
Sabrina Gaba

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