Plant attributes determining the regional abundance of weeds on central European arable land

Abstract

Aim Several recent studies have aimed to identify the biological, ecological and distributional attributes that determine the regional abundance of plant species. Here we aim to assess the relationships between regional abundance and species attributes in weeds on arable land. Location Czech Republic, central Europe. Methods The relationships between regional abundance and species attributes were studied with a data set of 381 weed species occurring on arable land in the Czech Republic. Regional species abundances were estimated from their occurrence frequency in vegetation plots distributed across the country. Using regression tree models, abundance was related to the biological traits, ecological indicator values, geographical distribution and habitat range of species. The models were calculated for the entire country and separately for weeds in cereals, root crops, lowlands and uplands. The effects of phylogenetic relatedness among species on their regional abundance were quantified and compared with the effects of species attributes. Results The results were similar for the whole data set and its particular subsets. Phylogeny explained 11.2–14.9% and species attributes 16.1–56.9% of the variation in regional abundance of weed species. Removal of the phylogenetic signal did not result in important changes in the effects of particular attributes. The most abundant species were those flowering in pre‐spring and early spring, adapted to low temperatures, relatively shade tolerant and with high nutrient requirements. The high regional abundance of these species positively correlated with their broad geographical (often circumpolar) distribution and broad habitat ranges. Main conclusions The regional abundance of weeds can, to some extent, be explained by their attributes. The most important attributes are those that enable weeds to grow and reproduce in the cool season when there is limited competition with crop plants, and those that are adaptations to growth in dense vegetation stands and highly productive habitats.

Potential of industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) genotypes to suppress weeds

“…Study by Lososova et al (2008) showed that the list of most abundant weeds in the Czech Republic corresponds very well to the lists of other countries of Central and Northern Europe and includes some species problematic for hemp: Polygonum aviculare, F. convolvulus, C. album can be found on agricultural fields throughout Europe independently of climatic conditions. Hyvonen et al (2011) suggest that weed species richness and abundance depend on land use type and region and tend to decline from fallows and low-input to conventionally cultivated land use type and from south to north.…”

Methods to conduct and analyse weed surveys in arable farming: a review

“…It shows a decreasing abundance and diversity of weeds from the beginning of wide applications of herbicides and levelling of site conditions until the 1980s but often increasing weed abundances during the last two decades due to herbicide reduction programmes, structural changes and a partial reversal of intensification (Andreasen et al 1996;Hyvönen et al 2003;Miloanova et al 2007;Kapeluszny and Haliniarz 2007;Novák et al 2009). However, this increase is rarely related to weed species of conservational value but usually involves higher proportions of problematic perennial and monocotyledonous species (Hyvönen et al 2003;Novák et al 2009;Potts et al 2010;Pinke et al 2011), higher abundances of generalist species that are common in all crops (Fried et al 2010), nitrophilous weeds and weeds adapted to dense vegetation stands (Lososová et al 2008;Šilc et al 2009;Májeková et al 2010).…”

Ökológiai és agrotechnikai tényezők hatása a szántóföldi gyomtársulások faj- és jellegösszetételére = Effects of environmental and management factors on species and trait composition in arable weed communities

“…A lokális tényezők fontosak voltak az életformák, növekedési formák és megporzási módok szempontjából, míg a táj komplexitása elsősorban a széllel terjedő fajok részesedését befolyásolta. Lososová et al (2008) megállapították, hogy Közép-Európában a leggyakoribb szántóföldi gyomfajok a következő jellegekkel rendelkeznek: korán virágoznak, alkalmazkodtak az alacsony hőmérséklethez, viszonylagosan árnyék-tűrők és magas a tápanyagigényük. Ezzel szemben Storkey et al (2010) "ritka gyomnövény jelleg szindrómaként" azonosították a következő tulajdonságokat: alacsony termet, nagyméretű mag és késői virágzás (pl.…”