Even though herbicide drift can affect plant reproduction, current plant testing protocols emphasize effects on vegetative growth. In this study, we determined whether a short-growing season plant can indicate potential effects of herbicides on seed production. Pea (Pisum sativum cv. Dakota) plants were grown in mineral soil in pots under greenhouse conditions. Plants were treated with a variety of herbicides (dicamba, clopyralid, glufosinate, glyphosate, 2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid, primisulfuron, or sulfometuron) at below standard field application rates applied at a vegetative stage of growth (approximately 14 d after emergence) or at flowering (approximately 20 d after emergence). Pea seed production was greatly reduced by sulfometuron at the minimum concentration used (0.001 x field application rate), with an effective concentration producing a 25% reduction in seed dry weight of 0.00007 x field application rate. Primisulfuron and glyphosate had a 25% reduction in seed dry weight for seed dry weight of 0.0035 and 0.0096 x field application rate, respectively. Clopyralid and dicamba reduced pea seed dry weight at a 25% reduction in seed dry weight of approximately 0.07 x field application rate. Glufosinate only reduced pea seed weight in one experiment, with a 25% reduction in seed dry weight of 0.07 and 0.008 x field application rate at vegetative growth and flowering stages, respectively. Pea seed dry weight was not affected by 2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid. Plant developmental stage had no consistent effect on herbicide responses. Reduced seed production occurred with some herbicides (especially acetolactate synthase inhibitors), which caused little or no reduction in plant height or shoot biomass and little visible injury. Thus, pea may be a model species to indicate seed reproductive responses to herbicides, with seed production obtained by extending plant growth for usually only 7 d longer than the period usually used in the vegetative vigor test.

Swiss Needle Cast (SNC), caused by a fungal pathogen, Nothophaeocryptopus gaeumannii, is a major forest disease of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) stands of the Pacific Northwest (PNW). There is mounting concern that the current SNC epidemic occurring in Oregon and Washington will continue to increase in severity, frequency, and spatial extent with future warming. N. gaeumannii occurs wherever its host is found but very little is known about the history and spatial distribution of SNC and its effects on growth and physiological processes of mature and old-growth forests within the Douglas-fir region of the PNW. Our findings show that stem growth and physiological responses of infected Douglas-fir to climate and SNC were different between sites, growth periods, and disease severity based on cellulosic stable carbon and oxygen isotope ratios and ring width data in tree rings. At a coastal Oregon site within the SNC impact zone, variations in stem growth and Δ13C were primarily influenced by disproportional reductions in stomatal conductance (gs) and assimilation (A) caused by a loss of functioning stomates through early needle abscission and stomatal occlusion by pseudothecia of N. gaeumannii. At the less severely infected inland sites on the west slopes of Oregon’s Cascade Range, stem growth correlated negatively with δ18O and positively with Δ13C, indicating gs decreased in response to high evaporative demand with a concomitant reduction in A. Current- and previous-years summer vapor pressure deficit (VPD) was the principal seasonal climatic variable affecting radial stem growth and the dual stable isotope ratios at all sites. Our results indicate that rising temperatures since the mid-1970s has strongly affected Douglas-fir growth in the PNW directly by a physiological response to higher evaporative demand during the annual summer drought and indirectly by a major SNC epidemic that is expanding regionally to higher latitudes and higher elevations.