Weeds Enhance Multifunctionality in Arable Lands in South-West of France

Gaba, Sabrina; Cheviron, Nathalie; Perrot, Thomas; Piutti, Séverine; Gautier, Jean-Luc; Bretagnolle, Vincent

doi:10.3389/fsufs.2020.00071

Cited by 38 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…Weeds perform a range of ecosystem functions in terms of soil quality and biodiversity support (Petit et al 2015;Blaix et al 2018;Gaba et al 2020), which can help to sustain agroecosystem productivity in the long term. In some cases, weeds may also have direct positive effects on crop production.…”

Section: Take Advantage Of the Positive Effects Of Weedsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When more is understood regarding how to select for more beneficial weeds, then weeds could perhaps be utilised as cover crops, given that the capacity of weeds to cover a field with no effort invested from the farmer may mean they could be a cost-effective way to protect and improve soil during crop-free periods (as long as these weeds were managed so as not to become a problem in subsequent crops). However, we expect examples where the direct positive effects of weeds on crops outweigh their negative impact are rare, and it is likely that greater benefits will be obtained for other ecosystem services, such as biodiversity support and soil health (Marshall et al 2003;Blaix et al 2018;Gaba et al 2020;Smith et al 2020). As we come to understand more about the biology and ecology of weeds, the more we may be able to identify opportunities to use weeds to improve agroecosystem sustainability.…”

Section: Take Advantage Of the Positive Effects Of Weedsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has produced several studies demonstrating benefits to food production and other ecosystem services that can result from managing agricultural land for high biodiversity (e.g. Petit et al 2015;Catarino et al 2019), including weeds (Gaba et al 2020). Critically for increased adoption, however, the LTSER ZA-PVS has also enabled researchers to identify the practices and landscape configurations that best meet the needs of multiple local stakeholders, as well as the social infrastructure and policy instruments that can promote these.…”

Section: Advancing Ecological Weed Research and Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An ecological future for weed science to sustain crop production and the environment. A review

MacLaren

Storkey

Menegat

et al. 2020

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

218

108

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Sustainable strategies for managing weeds are critical to meeting agriculture’s potential to feed the world’s population while conserving the ecosystems and biodiversity on which we depend. The dominant paradigm of weed management in developed countries is currently founded on the two principal tools of herbicides and tillage to remove weeds. However, evidence of negative environmental impacts from both tools is growing, and herbicide resistance is increasingly prevalent. These challenges emerge from a lack of attention to how weeds interact with and are regulated by the agroecosystem as a whole. Novel technological tools proposed for weed control, such as new herbicides, gene editing, and seed destructors, do not address these systemic challenges and thus are unlikely to provide truly sustainable solutions. Combining multiple tools and techniques in an Integrated Weed Management strategy is a step forward, but many integrated strategies still remain overly reliant on too few tools. In contrast, advances in weed ecology are revealing a wealth of options to manage weeds at the agroecosystem level that, rather than aiming to eradicate weeds, act to regulate populations to limit their negative impacts while conserving diversity. Here, we review the current state of knowledge in weed ecology and identify how this can be translated into practical weed management. The major points are the following: (1) the diversity and type of crops, management actions and limiting resources can be manipulated to limit weed competitiveness while promoting weed diversity; (2) in contrast to technological tools, ecological approaches to weed management tend to be synergistic with other agroecosystem functions; and (3) there are many existing practices compatible with this approach that could be integrated into current systems, alongside new options to explore. Overall, this review demonstrates that integrating systems-level ecological thinking into agronomic decision-making offers the best route to achieving sustainable weed management.

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Section: Take Advantage Of the Positive Effects Of Weedsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Take Advantage Of the Positive Effects Of Weedsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Advancing Ecological Weed Research and Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

An ecological future for weed science to sustain crop production and the environment. A review

MacLaren

Storkey

Menegat

et al. 2020

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

218

108

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This has resulted in the decline of at least 20% of weed species over the past 30 years [4], and an overall decline in rare flagship species [5]. However, by providing food and shelter for birds, insects and small mammals [6,7], weeds are also an important component in the maintenance of farmland biodiversity and agroecosystem functioning [8,9]. To meet agricultural production demand while conserving weed diversity and enhancing its related ecological functions, promotion of diverse weed assemblages has been suggested, assuming that increasing species richness would ensure for weed functions without selecting for few dominant species [10,11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape Is the Main Driver of Weed Assemblages in Field Margins but Is Outperformed by Crop Competition in Field Cores

Berquer

Martin

Gaba

2021

Plants

Self Cite

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Weeds are considered a major pest for crops, and as such have been intensively managed by farmers. However, weeds, by providing resources, also support farmland biodiversity. The challenge for sustainable weed management is therefore to maintain weed diversity without compromising crop production. Meeting this challenge requires determining the processes that shape weed assemblages, and how agricultural practices and landscape arrangement affect them. In this study, we assess the effects of crop competition on weeds, nitrogen input, weed control and landscape on both weed diversity and abundance in the margins and centres of 115 oilseed rape fields in Western France. We show that weed assemblages in field cores were mainly shaped by crop height, a proxy of crop competition. By contrast, weed assemblages in field margins increased with the number of meadows in the landscape, revealing the role of spatial dispersal. Using structural equation modelling, we further show that in the field core, weed assemblages were also indirectly shaped by landscape through spatial dispersal from the field margin. Overall, our study gives empirical support for crop competition as a way to reduce the intensity of chemical weeding, and for meadows as a way to enhance biodiversity in the landscape.

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“…3) and farmland birds (Pinke and Pál 2009). Accordingly, programs targeting stubble-flowers could also contribute to the conservation of the declining European arable weed flora (Meyer 2020), and consequently enhance the ecological multi-functionality of the diversity of the landscapes (Gaba et al 2020). This includes sustaining pollinator assemblages between mass flowering crop periods (Bretagnolle and Gaba 2015;Requier et al 2015;Rollin et al 2016;Kovács-Hostyánszki et al 2017;Venturini et al 2017), and providing food source for farmland birds (Orłowski et al 2011).…”

Section: Prospects For Revivalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rise and fall of Stachys annua (L.) L. in the Carpathian Basin: a historical review and prospects for its revival

Pinke

Dunai

Czúcz

2021

Genet Resour Crop Evol

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Stachys annua (L.) L., a melliferous archaeophyte plant became a dominant weed of the cereal stubbles of the Carpathian Basin in the medieval three-field system. By the middle of the nineteenth century, this plant provided more than two-thirds of the Hungarian honey production, and its high quality monofloral honey turned into a characteristic brand of the Hungarian apiculture. Recognizing its importance, S. annua also briefly became a minor crop cultivated in “bee gardens” and arable fields in the late nineteenth century, possibly also in response to the first signs of its upcoming decline. Starting with the advent of the steam plough, the twentieth century has brought a drastic decline for S. annua due to a combination of deeper and earlier tillage operations, agrochemicals, and new competing weed species (in particular the common ragweed, Ambrosia artemisiifolia). The last remnant stands of this previously dominant weed species are of considerable ecological and historical value as farmland biodiversity hotspots. These sites are important refuge for rare weeds, wild pollinators (including bumblebees), and declining farmland birds, which could be targeted by eco-schemes under the European Union’s (EU’s) greening Common Agricultural Policy. The rediscovery of the cropping potential of S. annua and the development of an appropriate technology would also allow its cultivation as a valuable bee forage, catch crop, green cover, or oilseed plant in the future.

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Weeds Enhance Multifunctionality in Arable Lands in South-West of France

Cited by 38 publications

References 68 publications

An ecological future for weed science to sustain crop production and the environment. A review

An ecological future for weed science to sustain crop production and the environment. A review

Landscape Is the Main Driver of Weed Assemblages in Field Margins but Is Outperformed by Crop Competition in Field Cores

Rise and fall of Stachys annua (L.) L. in the Carpathian Basin: a historical review and prospects for its revival

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