Institut für Pflanzenschutz in Ackerbau und Grünland
Weed management is a major production challenge in industrial agriculture. Heavy reliance on fewer herbicide modes of action for weed control has led to the evolution of herbicide-resistant weeds. Mathematical models have been developed to help elucidate the various factors that influence resistance evolution and spread in weeds, and devise strategies for effective resistance management. Simulating weed life cycle and population dynamics is a core component of these models. However, a major limitation with the currently existing models is that they only consider a single weed species and its interaction with the crop. In reality, weeds rarely present as solitary species, but occur in communities. Even in fields severely infested with a dominant grass species, there are often certain broadleaf weeds that take advantage of ecological niches and flourish. This fundamental nature of weed infestations in crop fields makes the single species simulation models fairly inaccurate. Moreover, with the recent emergence of herbicide resistance in many weed species within a production field, there is a growing need to simulate the interactions of multiple co-occurring weeds, at the very minimum a dominant grass and a broadleaf weed, and the resulting impact on crop yield. Several conceptual considerations need to be tested and validated while developing such multi-species weed population dynamic models. Here, we propose to conduct theoretical and field experiments to provide necessary ecological insights for guiding the development of multi-species weed dynamic models. These insights can be transferred to other models that include interactions between multiple plant species in agricultural and natural settings. It is expected that the results will greatly contribute to advancing the fundamental science as well as practical field applications.
Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung