Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Weed management: a need for ecological approaches
- 2 Weed life history: identifying vulnerabilities
- 3 Knowledge, science, and practice in ecological weed management: farmer–extensionist–scientist interactions
- 4 Mechanical management of weeds
- 5 Weeds and the soil environment
- 6 Enhancing the competitive ability of crops
- 7 Crop diversification for weed management
- 8 Managing weeds with insects and pathogens
- 9 Livestock grazing for weed management
- 10 Weed evolution and community structure
- 11 Weed management: the broader context
- Taxonomic index
- Subject index
5 - Weeds and the soil environment
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Weed management: a need for ecological approaches
- 2 Weed life history: identifying vulnerabilities
- 3 Knowledge, science, and practice in ecological weed management: farmer–extensionist–scientist interactions
- 4 Mechanical management of weeds
- 5 Weeds and the soil environment
- 6 Enhancing the competitive ability of crops
- 7 Crop diversification for weed management
- 8 Managing weeds with insects and pathogens
- 9 Livestock grazing for weed management
- 10 Weed evolution and community structure
- 11 Weed management: the broader context
- Taxonomic index
- Subject index
Summary
Introduction
One of the distinguishing characteristics of terrestrial plants is that they spend a significant portion of their lives unable to travel farther than they can grow. As a consequence of the sessile, fixed root habit, the resource environment in which plants grow and reproduce is a very local phenomenon and interactions among neighboring plants are common (Harper, 1977, p. 4). The sessile habit makes it possible to suppress weeds through manipulations of soil conditions.
Given the similarity of most terrestrial plant species in their requirements for sunlight, water, and nutrients, it is not surprising that weeds compete with crops for resources and reduce crop yields. Conversely, crop plants exert a large competitive effect on associated weeds (see Chapter 6). A key insight from ecology, however, is that outcomes of competitive interactions between plants are highly dependent on environmental conditions, especially soil-related factors. As Harper (1977, p. 369) noted, “there is a very extensive literature in which it is demonstrated repeatedly that the balance between a pair of species in mixture is changed by the addition of a particular nutrient, alteration of the pH, change in the level of the water table, application of water stress or of shading.”
Ecological studies have also revealed that plant abundance and distribution are affected by the availability of appropriate sites for germination and establishment (Grubb, 1977).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Ecological Management of Agricultural Weeds , pp. 210 - 268Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2001
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