We conducted a greenhouse study to examine the effects of different habitat conditions and environmental resources on the growth rates of crimson fountaingrass, an invasive, alien, perennial grass in South Africa. To help understand the factors promoting the spread of this emergent alien grass, we investigated the effects of temperature regimes, nutrient and moisture addition, and soil type on seedling growth rates and biomass allocation. Our results suggest that crimson fountaingrass seedlings do not tolerate drought because they died within 1 mo without water. Additional nutrients and extra water increased seedling growth rates throughout the study period. Higher temperatures with extra moisture increased seedling growth rates and the development of belowground biomass throughout the study period. This study demonstrates the importance of available environmental resources and their interaction with some habitat conditions in promoting crimson fountaingrass growth. We suggest that soil moisture and nutrient availability are critical factors affecting successful establishment of crimson fountaingrass in arid environments. Managers should target seedlings for removal following precipitation and in areas of nutrient enrichment, such as near rivers and at road–river crossings.

Field pea seed from bin cleaning operations stored overwinter on nearby cropland was observed to correlate with weed and crop growth suppression for up to three subsequent years. To explore the phenomenon more explicitly, plant growth suppression trials were undertaken with soil sampled 18 mo apart from two locations that had contained field pea seed residues. Test plant species grown in the residue-affected and nearby residue-free soils were compared in greenhouse experiments. Germination was either fully inhibited or emergence was delayed by more than one week. Dry matter accumulation of test species grown in residue-affected soil was significantly reduced compared to dry matter of these test species grown in residue-free soil (P < 0.0001). Canola and field pea were inhibited more than wheat and green foxtail over both years. Greenhouse trials also revealed that germination of wild oat was inhibited in the residue-affected soils, although wheat and grassy weeds were less suppressed than dicots overall. Significant reductions of weed species diversity and abundance were correlated to residue-affected soils (P < 0.0001) when compared to residue-free soils using multi-response permutations procedures. Germination of wheat and canola seed was inhibited, using aqueous extracts of weathered pea seeds or extracts of the residue-affected soil in bioassays in sterile media. An allelopathic response was proposed to explain the above results, indicating a need for further research on this system. Weed management strategies could be developed with field pea seed residues to provide innovative weed control techniques.

Management practices and cropping systems that serve as integrated weed management practices, and at the same time can contribute to improved soil quality, will be important for the sustainability of agricultural production systems. The objective of this study was to assess weed species population density under contrasting tillage (conventional tillage [CT] and no tillage [NT]), residue burning (burn and no burn), and residue level (low and high) treatments after 5 and 6 yr of consistent management in a wheat–soybean double-crop production system. A field experiment was conducted from fall 2001 to fall 2007 in the Mississippi River Delta region of eastern Arkansas on a Calloway silt–loam. Weed assessments were conducted twice during the soybean growing season, before (early season) and after herbicide application (late season) in 2006 and 2007. Total weed density was greater under CT (513 plants m−2) than under NT (340 plants m−2) early in the growing season in 2006, but was greater under NT than CT late in the season in 2007, suggesting that the effectiveness of glyphosate on total weeds differs between CT and NT. Averaged across residue levels, grass species density was greatest in the NT–burn (68 to 167 plants m−2) combination and lowest in the NT–no-burn (41 to 63 plants m−2) early in the growing season in both years. Broadleaf density was greater early (200 to 349 plants m−2) than late (18 to 20 plants m−2) in the growing season under both CT and NT in 2006, but in 2007 broadleaf density did not differ by tillage treatment between seasons. Perennial weed density was greater in the burn (99 plants m−2) than in the no-burn (59 plants m−2) treatment in 2006. No tillage, no burning, and a high residue level appeared to contribute to the suppression of most weed species without reducing herbicide efficiency.

Introduction of glyphosate resistance into crops through genetic modification has revolutionized crop protection. Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum herbicide with favorable environmental characteristics and effective broad-spectrum weed control that has greatly improved crop protection efficiency. However, in less than a decade, the utility of this technology is threatened by the occurrence of glyphosate-tolerant and glyphosate-resistant weed species. Factors that have contributed to this shift in weed species composition in Georgia cotton production are reviewed, along with the implications of continued overreliance on this technology. Potential scenarios for managing glyphosate-resistant populations, as well as implications on the role of various sectors for dealing with this purported tragedy of the commons, are presented. Benghal dayflower, a glyphosate-tolerant species, continues to spread through Georgia and surrounding states, whereas glyphosate susceptibility in Palmer amaranth is endangered in Georgia and other cotton-producing states in the southern United States. Improved understanding of how glyphosate susceptibility in our weed species spectrum was compromised (either through occurrence of herbicide-tolerant or -resistant weed species) may allow us to avoid repeating these mistakes with the next herbicide-resistant technology.

Planting peanut in narrow rows for weed control has not been investigated in recently released Virginia market peanut cultivars. Research was conducted in North Carolina from 2007 to 2009 to determine the effect of cultivar, planting pattern, and level of weed management inputs on weed control, peanut yield, and estimated economic return. Experiments consisted of three levels of weed management (clethodim applied POST, cultivation and hand-removal of weeds, and clethodim and appropriate broadleaf herbicides applied POST), three levels of planting pattern (single rows spaced 91 cm apart, standard twin rows spaced 20 cm apart on 91-cm centers, and narrow twin rows consisting of twin rows spaced 20 cm apart on 46-cm centers), and two Virginia cultivars (‘NC 12C’ and ‘VA 98R’). Weed management affected common lambsquarters, common ragweed, eclipta, nodding spurge, pitted morningglory, Texas millet, and yellow nutsedge control, irrespective of cultivar or planting pattern. Cultivar and planting pattern had only minor effects on weed control and interactions of these treatment factors seldom occurred. Weed control achieved with cultivation plus hand-removal was similar to weed management observed with grass and broadleaf herbicide programs. Pod yield did not differ among treatments when broadleaf weeds were the dominant species but did differ when Texas millet was the most prevalent weed. The highest yield with conventional herbicide weed management was in standard twin and narrow twin row planting patterns, although no differences among planting patterns were noted when cultivation and hand-removal were the primary weed management tactics. Differences in estimated economic return were associated with weed species, and interactions of treatment factors varied by year for that parameter.

Common groundsel adapts readily to new environments and selection pressures and has been variably described as both a winter and summer annual. We characterized germination response to temperature in seeds from populations occurring at six sites along a 700-km north–south transect (Kentucky to Michigan). Seeds were collected in 2000 and 2002 from randomly selected plants (350 to 400), at each sampling site. Two germination patterns were observed: (1) seeds from the southern locations averaged 80 to 90% germination across the range of 5 to 25 C; and (2) seeds from northern locations had reduced germination when incubation temperatures were close to 5 or 25 C. When seed from all locations were grown in a common environment (14/10-h thermoperiod of 22/18 C), their progeny had a germination response that was similar across the temperature gradient, regardless of original location, suggesting germination of the parent seed was due to maternal environmental effects. In a subsequent experiment, common groundsel was grown in growth chambers with warm long days (22/15 C and 16 h of light), warm short days (8 h of light), cold long days (15/8 C and 16 h of light), and cold short days. Eighty percent of seeds from the warm environments germinated across the range from 5 to 25 C indicating that these maternal conditions had produced nondormant seeds. In contrast, 20% or fewer of the seeds from plants in the cold chambers germinated regardless of temperature, suggesting that dormancy had been induced by the cool maternal environment. Results also indicated that signaling of maternal environment varied with inflorescence development stages, meaning the earlier the inflorescences are exposed to cold conditions, the lower the percent germination in F1 seeds. Preventing seed maturation on common groundsel growing under cool conditions may reduce the formation of a persistent seed bank.

Global expansion in the cultivation of genetically engineered (GE) crops has raised concerns about the adventitious presence of GE seeds in non-GE and organic products. Flax is the second most important oilseed crop in western Canada and is currently being evaluated as a potential platform for the production of bio-products. Before transgenic flax is released for commercial production, mitigation measures must be identified to reduce the adventitious presence in subsequent crops. To quantify adventitious presence of volunteer flax in spring wheat and to identify the efficacy of herbicide treatments on mitigating volunteer flax adventitious presence, research was conducted at four locations during 2005 and 2006 in central Alberta. To simulate artificial volunteer populations, flax was seeded prior to wheat at a target population of 150 plants m−2. In the untreated control, volunteer flax seed yield was 135 kg ha−1, which resulted in adventitious presence of 8.57% in spring wheat. When left uncontrolled, volunteer flax reduced wheat yields ∼57% and resulted in volunteer flax seed production of 4,755 seeds m−2. A single PRE treatment of glyphosate or glyphosate plus tribenuron reduced volunteer flax density from 39 to 4 and 6 plants m−2, respectively, seed production from 4,755 to < 58 seeds m−2, and volunteer flax seed viability from 55 to < 40%. POST herbicides, fluroxypyr plus MCPA and fluroxypyr plus 2,4-D, reduced volunteer flax seed production as low as 0.6 and 0.0 seeds m−2, respectively, adventitious presence to 0.64 and 0.03%, respectively, and seed viability to ≤ 10%. Combination of glyphosate applied PRE followed by fluroxypyr plus 2,4-D or by thifensulfuron plus tribenuron plus quinclorac applied POST reduced adventitious presence of volunteer flax in wheat to near 0%. These treatment combinations were also effective for reducing volunteer flax fecundity to 0.0 and 7.1 seeds m−2, respectively, and volunteer flax seed viability to 0 and 5%, respectively. This study demonstrated that with effective mitigation strategies, seed mediated gene flow from GE volunteer flax can be reduced.

ALS inhibitor-resistant biotypes are the fastest growing class of herbicide-resistant (HR) weeds. A Canadian ALS inhibitor-resistant biotype of Russian thistle was first reported in 1989. The molecular basis for ALS-inhibitor resistance is unknown for Canadian populations of this polyploid weed species, and was determined in this study for one Alberta and two Saskatchewan HR Russian thistle populations. HR plants survived spray application of the ALS-inhibitor mixture thifensulfuron : tribenuron in the greenhouse. All three HR Russian thistle populations were heterogeneous and contained both HR and herbicide-susceptible (HS) individuals. The molecular basis for resistance was determined by sequencing the ALS gene and/or conducting a TaqMan genotyping assay for single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) for the Trp574Leu mutation. Two target-site mutations were observed: Trp574Leu in all three biotypes (554 individuals) and Pro197Gln in one biotype (one individual), suggesting multiple-founding events for Russian thistle HR populations in western Canada. Segregation patterns among F1 and F2 progeny arrays of HR lines sprayed under greenhouse conditions varied; some segregated (i.e., had HR and HS progeny), whereas other lines were exclusively HR. In contrast, no segregation of molecular types, i.e., Trp574, Trp/Leu574 and Leu574, as would be expected with heterozygosity at a single locus Trp/Leu574, was observed. Such lack of segregation is consistent with the polyploid genome structure of Russian thistle and the presence of two copies of the ALS gene. The presence of more than one ALS gene confounded the ability of the molecular techniques to accurately identify “true” heterozygotes in this study.

Certain sulfonylurea (SU) herbicides are used to remove overseeded cool-season species from bermudagrass. The effects of nitrogen (N) on the efficacy of a new SU herbicide, flazasulfuron, have not been determined. Field and laboratory studies were conducted in 2008 and 2009 evaluating the efficacy of flazasulfuron for control of overseeded perennial ryegrass contaminated with annual bluegrass. Flazasulfuron was applied at rates of 4.4, 8.8, and 17.5 g ha−1 alone, and in between sequential applications of N fertilizer at 73 kg N ha−1. N was granularly applied immediately prior to herbicide treatment and 4 wk later. In both years, the level of annual bluegrass control with flazasulfuron and two applications of N at 73 kg N ha−1 was significantly greater than following treatment with flazasulfuron alone. This response was observed for all application rates of flazasulfuron on every rating date. The level of annual bluegrass control with flazasulfuron at 4.4 g ha−1 and two applications of N at 73 kg ha−1 was greater than flazasulfuron at 17.5 g ha−1 alone each year. No significant differences in perennial ryegrass control were observed for flazasulfuron with and without N fertility. In laboratory studies with annual bluegrass, treatment with N fertilizer at 73 kg N ha−1 increased translocation of 14C flazasulfuron (and any potential metabolites) from treated annual bluegrass leaves to other shoot tissues by 18% at 1 h after treatment and 22% at 4 h after treatment compared to plants not treated with N fertilizer. This increase in translocation may explain the increased level of annual bluegrass control observed in the field.

The volatile compounds of crofton weed infested by cotton aphids and sprayed with MeJA were collected and analyzed by the TCT-GC/MS technique. The healthy weeds were controls. Seventeen volatiles identified from crofton weed included green leaf odors, monoterpenes and sequiterpenes, and oxo-compounds. Camphene, 2-carene, α-phellandrene, ρ-cymene, and caryophyllene were the major volatiles and constituted about 77% of the total volatile emissions from the control. In the aphid-infested weeds, no new induced component was found. Among the terpenes, ρ-cymene increased markedly in the infested weeds compared with the control, whereas all sesquiterpenes decreased markedly. Levels of endogenous JA in leaves and young stems of the aphid-infested weeds were markedly higher than in the control, whereas both endogenous SA level and ABA level were not significantly different. MeJA sprayed on crofton weed with the aphid infestation had a similar effect on volatile emissions. It is suggested that JA was one of the most important signals in crofton weed and could regulate the emission of volatile compounds.

Experiments were conducted to determine the amount of time required for waterhemp to produce mature seeds after pollination. Female waterhemp plants were pollinated over a 24-h time period and then isolated from males. Two branches, each containing at least 500 flowers, were harvested from each female at the time of the initial pollination, designated as 0 d after pollination (DAP), as well as at multiple other times after pollination up to 62 DAP. One branch from each harvest was stored at 30 C for 48 h, while the other branch was stored at −20 C for 48 h. Branches were then stored at room temperature until all harvests were complete, at which time seeds from each branch at each time after pollination were collected, weighed, and stratified. Germination tests were then conducted to determine the time at which seeds become viable after pollination. Seeds that had not germinated by the end of the germination tests were subjected to tetrazolium testing for viability. Germination tests were also conducted on nonstratified seeds to investigate changes in seed dormancy that were expected to occur over the amount of time the seeds were allowed to remain on the plants. Seeds stored initially at 30 C postharvest became viable 7 to 9 DAP, whereas seeds stored initially at −20 C postharvest did not become mature until 11 DAP. Seed coat color was white soon after pollination and became dark brown to nearly black by 12 DAP, and seed weight increased until 12 DAP. Tetrazolium tests for seed viability correlated well with the germination tests. Germination tests on nonstratified seeds indicated that dormancy level was initially high in the population used, but began to decrease between 15 and 30 DAP. Results of this study have implications both for waterhemp management and research.

The allelopathic potential of a plant has been evaluated on the basis of two indicators: specific activity, which is the specific concentration of the allelochemical to exert a half-maximum effect on a receiver plant (EC50), and total activity in a plant, which is the ratio of the concentration of an allelochemical in the producing plant to its EC50. In the present study, a new indicator, total activity in a soil, which takes into account the effects of a soil on the allelopathy activity, is proposed because allelopathic activity is affected by the presence of soils. The total activity in a soil was calculated by multiplying the “total activity in a plant” with a “soil factor.” In this calculation, we assumed simplified cases for comparison, such that the allelopathic plant materials are evenly incorporated in the soils and the allelochemicals are released from the plant materials to the soils at a constant rate. We conducted bioassay experiments in the presence and absence of soils and cited some published data to calculate the specific activities and total activities in a plant and in a soil. The results indicated that the allelopathies of buckwheat caused by (+)-catechin, Leucaena leucocephala by L-mimosine, Xanthium occidentale by trans-cinnamic acid, and Brassica parachinensis by cis-cinnamic acid were not significant in a volcanic ash soil, an alluvial soil, and a calcareous soil, but the allelopathy of sweet vernalgrass caused by coumarin and Spiraea thunbergii by cis-cinnamoyl glucosides was highly effective in those soils. The allelopathies of Juglans species caused by juglone plus juglone precursors and Mucuna pruriens by L-DOPA would depend highly on the soil types. Although some limitations exist for this approach, the total activity approach would allow for a better quantitative estimation of the allelopathic potential of plant materials in soils.

Crop rows oriented at a right angle to sunlight direction (i.e., east–west within the winter cropping system in Western Australia) may suppress weed growth through greater shading of weeds in the interrow spaces. This was investigated in the districts of Merredin and Beverley, Western Australian (latitudes of 31° and 32°S) from 2002 to 2005 (four trials). Winter grain crops (wheat, barley, canola, lupines, and field peas) were sown in an east–west or north–south orientation. Within wheat and barley crops oriented east–west, weed biomass (averaged throughout all trials) was reduced by 51 and 37%, and grain yield increased by 24 and 26% (compared with crops oriented north–south). This reduction in weed biomass and increase in crop yield likely resulted from the increased light (photosynthetically active radiation) interception by crops oriented east–west (i.e., light interception by the crop canopy as opposed to the weed canopy was 28 and 18% greater in wheat and barley crops oriented east–west, compared with north–south crops). There was no consistent effect of crop row orientation in the canola, field pea, and lupine crops. It appears that manipulation of crop row orientation in wheat and barley is a useful weed-control technique that has few negative effects on the farming system (i.e., does not cost anything to implement and is more environmentally friendly than chemical weed control).

Crops that effectively compete with weeds may be more suitable in low-input agricultural systems. A 2-yr field experiment was conducted in northern Greece to assess the competitiveness of seven annual aromatic plants (anise, sweet fennel, sweet basil, dill, coriander, parsley, and lacy phacelia) on common purslane, common lambsquarters, black nightshade, and barnyardgrass. The phytotoxicity of the essential oils produced by these aromatic plants was also determined using a perlite-based bioassay with barnyardgrass. Separation, identification, and quantification of the volatile compounds of these essential oils were also performed. After the harvest of the aromatic plants (8 wk after planting), the greatest weed fresh weight reduction (94 to 100%) was recorded in lacy phacelia, whereas the least (0 to 30%) was recorded in parsley. Lacy phacelia and sweet fennel produced the greatest fresh biomass yield in weedy and weed-free treatments, whereas parsley, dill, and coriander produced the lowest. Biomass of sweet fennel and anise was reduced by only 9 to 11% by weed competition, whereas biomass of lacy phacelia was not significantly affected. The essential oils isolated from sweet fennel and sweet basil were the most phytotoxic on barnyardgrass, whereas those isolated from lacy phacelia and anise were the least phytotoxic. Conclusively, aromatic plants with great competitiveness such as lacy phacelia, anise, and sweet fennel provided great weed suppression and they could be cultivated with low inputs in herbicides. However, high competitiveness of aromatic plants may not always be correlated with high essential oil phytotoxicity.

Preventing the introduction of weeds into the farming system through sowing of clean seeds is an essential component of weed management. The weed seed contamination of cleaned grain and herbicide resistance levels of the recovered weed seeds were examined in a study conducted across 74 farms in the Western Australian grainbelt. Most farmers grew and conserved their own crop seed. The majority of cleaned samples had some level of seed contamination from 11 foreign weed and volunteer crop species, with an average of 62 seeds 10 kg−1 grain, substantially higher than the 28 seeds 10 kg−1 grain expected by farmers. The most common weed contaminants across all samples were rigid ryegrass, wild radish, brome, and wild oat. When categorized by crop type, rigid ryegrass was the most frequent contaminant of cereal crops (barley and wheat), however wild radish was the most frequent contaminant of lupin crops. Uncleaned crop seed samples had almost 25 times more contamination than cleaned crop seed. Herbicide resistance was highly prevalent within rigid ryegrass populations recovered from cleaned grain except for glyphosate, which controlled all populations tested. Some resistance was also found in wild radish and wild oat populations; however, brome was susceptible to fluazifop. This study has shown that farmers are unknowingly introducing weed seeds into their farming systems during crop seeding, many of which have herbicide resistance.

Community assembly theory provides a useful framework to assess the response of weed communities to agricultural management systems and to improve the predictive power of weed science. Under this framework, weed community assembly is constrained by abiotic and biotic “filters” that act on species traits to determine community composition. We used an assembly approach to investigate the response of weed seed banks to 25 yr of management-related filtering in three different row-crop management systems in southeastern Pennsylvania: organic manure-based, organic legume-based, and conventional. Weed seed banks were sampled in April of 2005 and 2006 and quantified by direct germination in a greenhouse. We also assessed the filtering effects of weed management practices and relationships between assembled seed bank and emergent weed communities by allowing or excluding weed control practices within each management system and measuring emergent weed community response. Germinable weed seed bank densities and species richness in the final year of the study were over 40% and 15% higher, respectively, in the organic systems relative to the conventional system. Seed bank community structure in the organic systems was different from the conventional system, and the relationships between assembled seed banks and the emergent flora varied. Primary tillage, weed control, timing of planting, and fertility management appeared to be the main filters that differentiated weed seed banks in the three systems. Weed life history, emergence periodicity, seed size, and responsiveness to soil fertility and hydrology appeared to be the most important functional traits determining how weed species responded to management-related filters. Our results suggest that management systems can exert strong filtering effects that can persist over relatively long (greater than one growing season) time scales. Legacy effects of community-level filtering might be more important than previously assumed, and should be incorporated into predictive models of weed community assembly.

Glyphosate-resistant (GR) cropping systems are popular and used extensively by producers. However, the long-term impacts of heavy reliance of this technology on weed community structure are not known. Five fully phased field experiments (two no-tillage and three conventional tillage) were established at four locations in southwestern Ontario where the effects of herbicide system (glyphosate or conventional) in corn and soybean and crop rotation (corn–soybean or corn–soybean–winter wheat) on midseason weed communities were examined. Multivariate analysis on data over the last 3 yr of the 6-yr experiment showed that weed communities were distinctly different among the treatments within each experiment. At several locations, midseason weed communities were more similar in corn and soybean treated with glyphosate compared to the same crops treated with conventional herbicides, reflecting the continuous application of the same selection pressure in both crops. Analysis of trait-densities revealed an increase in species with late initiation of seedling recruitment at the expense of weed species with medium time of initiation of seedling recruitment rather than early recruiting species. Increases in perennial species, species with a short interval between recruitment and anthesis, and wind-dispersed species were also observed. Trait-density–based analysis of the weed community was an effective method for reducing the complexity of divergent weed communities that enabled direct quantitative comparison of the herbicide-induced effects on these weed communities.

Laboratory studies were conducted to compare the soil adsorption of aminopyralid and clopyralid with the use of batch-slurry and centrifugation assays. The calculated soil binding constants for both herbicides varied between the two techniques, but the centrifugation assay had a lower coefficient of variation compared to the batch-slurry assay. These results indicate that a centrifugation assay is a more accurate procedure for measuring the interaction of aminopyralid and clopyralid with soils. Aminopyralid adsorbed more tightly than clopyralid to six of the eight soils tested. Adsorption Kd values ranged from 0.083 to 0.364 for clopyralid and 0.106 to 0.697 for aminopyralid. Pearson correlation analysis indicated that binding of both herbicides was highly correlated to soil organic matter and texture but not to soil pH. On average, soil thin-layer chromatography indicated that aminopyralid was less mobile (Rf = 0.82) than clopyralid (Rf = 0.91), although both were mobile. These results suggest that aminopyralid will have a lower leaching potential than clopyralid. Lower potential aminopyralid soil leaching, coupled with low use rates, suggests it may be the herbicide of choice in areas where potential for leaching could be a concern.

Field studies examined the interaction of soil pH with differing levels of atrazine exposure over 4 yr. Soil pH was 5.2 to 7.1 with atrazine exposures ranging from none (0) to eight applications over a 4-yr period (for each year, one application at planting and one early postemergence). The entire plot area was uniformly managed to reduce potential confounding effects due to cropping history, tillage, and other factors. Soil from all plots previously treated with atrazine displayed rapid atrazine dissipation, with half-lives under laboratory conditions being less than 4 d in plots of pH 5.5 or greater and less than 8 d in the field. Soil pH had a marked effect, with slower atrazine dissipation in those plots that had a pH 5.5 or less. This effect of pH and previous atrazine history was consistent in laboratory and field environments. Implications of these findings include probable reduction in weed control due to more rapid atrazine dissipation and potentially reduced loadings into surface water due to this phenomenon.