Extensive field and greenhouse studies were done to characterize varietal response of three recently commercialized sulfonylurea corn herbicides: nicosulfuron, primisulfuron, and thifensulfuron. Most of the 94 varieties tested were highly tolerant to these herbicides. The 37 inbreds represented all major inbred families now used in hybrid seed production as well as several sensitive experimentals. Twenty-one defined hybrids from these inbreds as well as 36 commercially coded hybrids were also tested. Sensitive inbreds produced tolerant hybrids when crossed with tolerant inbreds. Sensitive hybrids occurred when both parents were sensitive. Genetic analysis of sensitive by tolerant crosses showed that sensitivity is controlled by a single recessive gene. Nicosulfuron had the widest corn safety margin and fewest sensitive varieties. Dose response analysis showed varieties can vary more than 40 000-fold in sensitivity. Only corn varieties with the AHAS-modified XA-17 gene showed any change in enzyme sensitivity. This gene overcame sensitivity to sulfonylureas, even when the organophosphate insecticide terbufos was present. Thus, breeders have three options to eliminate sulfonylurea sensitivity: backcross sensitive inbreds with tolerant, always use at least one tolerant hybrid parent, or use the XA-17 gene.

Varying the type of nonionic surfactant greatly changed the biological activity of the ethyl ester of quizalofop-P on giant foxtail, barnyardgrass, and corn. These studies statistically evaluated 22 surfactants with widely different chemical, physical, and surface properties. Of the 14 surfactant properties analyzed, dynamic surface tension was the most important to enhance quizalofop-P activity. Alcohol ethoxylate surfactants like Genapol® 24-L-92 and Tergitol® 15-S-7 were among the most effective adjuvants. These surfactants performed significantly better than the commercial nonionic surfactant, Induce®, and equal to a high-quality petroleum crop oil concentrate, Agri-dex®. These surfactants offer a lower dose option to crop oil concentrates and a more effective surfactant alternative for mixtures that prohibit crop oil concentrates.

A practical and objective system is needed to determine the lowest rates of the most efficacious herbicides to meet each producer's specific weed control problems. Determining which method of weed control to utilize is difficult today with increasing product choices, the growing use and complexity of herbicide mixtures, regulatory pressures to reduce rates, and the closer integration of weed control with other crop decisions. Expert computer systems could improve current practices and use herbicide mixtures as a tool to increase herbicide efficiency. Such systems would account for herbicide dose and mixture responses; select most economical herbicides; optimize adjuvants; recommend control at economic thresholds; and vary rates according to weed spectrum, density, and local environmental conditions. An example using chlorimuron and thifensulfuron illustrates how these systems could use quantitative dose response and mixture information.

Changing the number of ethylene oxide (EO) units on a nonylphenol surfactant changes its physicochemical and biological properties. Increasing the number of EO units makes the surfactant more hydrophilic and increases its hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB). Surfactants with high HLB values, more than 16, were the most active with the hydrophilic herbicide glyphosate. More lipophilic surfactants with HLB values from 11 to 13 were more active with the lipophilic herbicide, the ethyl ester of quizalofop-P. Surfactants with intermediate HLB values were the most active with the herbicide that had intermediate water solubility, nicosulfuron. Matching the physicochemical properties of the herbicide and surfactant improved biological efficacy on giant foxtail.

Nine corn inbreds were selected from a test on 250 inbreds based on distinctly different response to herbicides. These inbreds showed up to 50,000-fold differences, which varied by inbred and herbicide. Only the inbred GA209 was sensitive to bentazon and the four sulfonylurea herbicides. GA209 and B90 were the most sensitive inbreds to the sulfonylurea herbicides. F2R was generally the most tolerant inbred. The pattern of herbicide tolerance varied greatly. For example, the relative tolerance of F2 to thifensulfuron was 12-fold more than to rimsulfuron while Mo17 was 56-fold more tolerant to rimsulfuron than thifensulfuron. F2 was fivefold more tolerant of chlorsulfuron than chlorimuron, whereas B80 was 100-fold the reverse. These inbreds provide a small subset of varieties to evaluate the large and inherent differences in herbicide tolerance of corn.

Seed treatments with two acetolactate synthase (ALS)-inhibiting herbicides, the sulfonylurea herbicide nicosulfuron and the imidazolinone herbicide imazaquin, controlled the parasitic weed Striga hermonthica in corn. The XA-17 gene in ALS-modified P3180IR corn strongly reduced corn injury from herbicide seed treatments while another ALS modification was not effective. Combining seed treatment of ALS-inhibiting herbicides and ALS-modified corn with the XA-17 gene may offer a practical means for African growers to control Striga hermonthica.

Certain linear alcohol ethoxylate surfactants with large hydrophobes enhanced nicosulfuron activity on giant foxtail (Setaria faberi) more effectively at low doses than surfactants with small hydrophobes and commercial standards. The most effective surfactants had a C16–18 hydrophobe and 12 to 30 moles of ethoxylation or a C24 hydrophobe with 13 moles of ethoxylation. Response curve analysis showed these linear alcohol ethoxylate surfactants were five- to 20-fold more active on a dose basis than currently used commercial surfactants.

Surfactant concentrations from 0.0008 to 12.5% (w/w) in spray volumes from 19 to 475 L/ha were tested with and without rimsulfuron on giant foxtail. Both factors varied at 5-fold increments so treatments with equal surfactant concentrations and rates could be compared. As surfactant concentration increased from 0.0008 to 0.1%, rimsulfuron activity increased from less than 20% to more than 90% growth inhibition. This increase was dependent on surfactant concentration. As surfactant concentration increased from 0.5 to 12.5%, rimsulfuron activity decreased to less than 20% at all spray volumes. This decreased activity and the associated surfactant phytotoxicity was dependent on surfactant rate, not concentration. Thus rimsulfuron can be much less active when applied with too little or too much surfactant.

A nonionic surfactant with the appropriate structure and concentration increased rimsulfuron activity 10-fold. Surfactants sharply increased rimsulfuron activity as concentration increased up to 0.05% (w/w) with slightly more enhancement up to 0.1% (w/w). Surfactants with a wide range of 14 chemical, physical, and surface properties were evaluated on giant foxtail, velvetleaf, and corn. Two properties, HLB (hydrophilic-lipophilic balance) and the physical form of the spray deposit, explained the biological variation. The most active surfactants had an HLB from 12 to 17 and formed a moist gel spray deposit on the leaf on all three species. A separate study with 13 chemically pure linear alcohol ethoxylates supported these conclusions and additionally showed that increasing molecular size increases activity. Because crop injury correlates with weed control, the best surfactant strategy is to maximize weed control at the lowest rimsulfuron rate.

Increasing the pH of the spray water to solubilize the weak acid herbicide nicosulfuron and then decreasing pH below its pKa so that it converts into a neutral form enhances biological activity under some conditions. The water-dispersible granule formulation of nicosulfuron starts as dispersed particles. Adding 1% wt/wt K3PO4 solubilizes nicosulfuron and increases its activity compared to its dispersion without base. The type of buffer and the surfactant HLB or hydrophilic lipophilic balance, a measure of the molecular balance of the hydrophilic and lipophilic groups, altered the activity of nicosulfuron. Adding 1% wt/wt K3PO4 increases the pH, and the optimum HLB ranged from 13 to 17 on large crabgrass. Adding 1% wt/wt H3PO4 reduces the pH and lowers the optimum HLB range from 10 to 14 on large crabgrass. Adding the acidic buffer converts the solubilized nicosulfuron into its neutral form and increases activity under some surfactant conditions. Thus, neutral nicosulfuron is more active with lipophilic surfactants, while ionic nicosulfuron is more active with hydrophilic surfactants. When tested on other species, low HLB surfactants are the most active at low pH. These results support the concept that the physicochemical properties of the herbicide, adjuvants, and weed species should be matched for optimum activity.

The biological activity of rimsulfuron applied with 33 alcohol ethoxylate surfactants was determined on six economically important weed species. The surfactants had hydrophobes ranging from 6 to 24 carbons and hydrophiles ranging from 3 to 32 ethylene oxides (EOs), and the weeds had different leaf orientations, surface characteristics, and chemical compositions. In general, similar activity was observed among weed species with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.62 to 0.94. A few distinct species-specific differences were identified. For example, increasing surfactant size generally increased rimsulfuron activity on velvetleaf, but activity was reduced on giant foxtail with surfactants having the longest alkyl chain and the highest number of EO units. Increasing surfactant size increased common cocklebur control if the right balance between the hydrophobic and hydrophilic group was maintained. The optimum surfactant type with rimsulfuron across six species from both the empirical and the modeling results ranged from a hydrophobe with 17 carbons and a hydrophilic group with 20 to 30 EOs to 24 carbons and 13 EOs.

Weed management is a perennial challenge for growers, and continual innovation is essential to maintain the effectiveness of management technologies. The first generation of herbicide-resistant crops revolutionized weed control. However, weeds are adapting to crop systems that rely on a single mode of herbicide action. Crops with resistance to multiple modes of herbicide action could help maintain weed management. GAT/HRA is a new multiple herbicide–resistance technology for corn, soybean, and other crops. GAT/HRA combines metabolic glyphosate inactivation with an acetolactate synthase (ALS) enzyme that is insensitive to ALS-inhibiting herbicides. The mechanism to inactivate glyphosate is the glyphosate N-acetyltransferase enzyme, which transforms glyphosate into a nonphytotoxic metabolite. The gat gene is derived from a naturally occurring soil bacterium and optimized by repetitive gene shuffling and screening. The resistance mechanism to ALS-inhibiting herbicides is a double-mutant, highly resistant ALS (HRA) that is insensitive to all five classes of ALS herbicides. GAT/HRA crops will maintain natural tolerance to selective herbicides and thus provide more weed management options for growers to help deter weed spectrum shifts and delay the evolution of herbicide-resistant weeds.

Adjuvants that increase the pH of the spray mixture and solubilize nicosulfuron can enhance biological activity under specific conditions. These conditions include high nicosulfuron rates, difficult-to-control weeds, low spray volumes, and initially acidic spray conditions. The most effective pH adjusters are tribasic potassium phosphate, sodium carbonate, and triethanolamine. In low spray volumes, these adjusters make the spray mixture alkaline and often enhance the activity of nicosulfuron on common cocklebur and large crabgrass. Alkaline conditions rapidly dissolve the sulfonylurea particles and enhance activity with crop oil concentrate, modified seed oil, and hydrophilic nonionic surfactants. pH adjusters did not enhance activity with lipophilic surfactants. Ammonium sulfate slightly increases the pH of spray mixtures and increases nicosulfuron activity depending on species, adjuvant type, and pH adjuster. These results generally support the concept that herbicide solubilization is necessary to maximize the foliar activity.

New and improved glyphosate-resistant (GR) crops continue to be rapidly developed. These crops confer greater crop safety to multiple glyphosate applications, higher rates, and wider application timings. Many of these crops will also have glyphosate resistance stacked with traits that confer resistance to herbicides with other modes of actions to expand the utility of existing herbicides and to increase the number of mixture options that can delay the evolution of GR weeds. Some breeding stacks of herbicide resistance traits are currently available, but the trend in the future will be to combine resistance genes in molecular stacks. The first example of such a molecular stack has a new metabolically based mechanism to inactivate glyphosate combined with an active site-based resistance for herbicides that inhibit acetolactate synthase (ALS). This stack confers resistance to glyphosate and all five classes of ALS-inhibiting herbicides. Other molecular stacks will include glyphosate resistance with resistance to auxin herbicides and herbicides that inhibit acetyl coenzyme A carboxylase (ACCase) and 4-hydroxyphenyl pyruvate dioxygenase (HPPD). Scientists are also studying a number of other herbicide resistance transgenes. Some of these new transgenes will be used to make new multiple herbicide-resistant crops that offer growers more herbicide options to meet their changing weed management needs and to help sustain the efficacy of glyphosate.

Adjuvant research contributes much to the knowledge and practice of weed science though the scientific process of systematically asking precise questions and subsequently making distinctions among alternative explanations. The purpose of adjuvant experimentation is to answer these questions and the purpose of associated papers and presentations is to communicate the new information. These purposes are self-evident, but are difficult to perfect. Some factors are particularly difficult for adjuvant researchers and require that researchers plan thoroughly from the formulation of the experimental question to final presentation of results. Adjuvant research requires both chemical and biological expertise that is traditionally separated in most organizations. Scientists from other disciplines or weed scientists not primarily concerned with adjuvants often direct adjuvant studies. This paper discusses mistakes that are commonly made in test design, interpretation, and presentation and suggests guidelines to improve the quality of adjuvant research.

The transgenic corn line 98140 has a high level of resistance to glyphosate and all five chemical classes of herbicides that inhibit acetolactate synthase (ALS). The dual herbicide resistance is due to a molecular stack of two constitutively expressed genes: gat4621, which produces a glyphosate acetyltransferase that rapidly inactivates glyphosate, and hra, which produces a highly resistant ALS. On a rate basis, the positive 98140 isoline with a single copy of the gat4621 gene is over 1,000-fold more resistant to glyphosate than a negative isoline without the transgene. Similarly, the positive 98140 isoline with the hra gene is over 1,000-fold more resistant to ALS-inhibiting herbicides such as chlorimuron and sulfometuron at the whole-plant and enzyme level. The gat4621 and hra genes do not change the natural tolerance of corn to selective herbicides, so new corn hybrids based on 98140 will give growers more options to manage weeds and delay the evolution of herbicide-resistant weeds.

Seeds of a putative 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (HPPD)-inhibiting herbicide–resistant tall waterhemp biotype from Henry County, IA, were collected from a seed corn field in fall 2009 after plants were not controlled following a POST application of mesotrione plus atrazine. The response of this biotype to various herbicide modes of action was evaluated in greenhouse and field tests. Under greenhouse conditions, the suspect biotype showed an eightfold decrease in sensitivity to mesotrione with a 50% control rate of 21 g ha−1 compared with 2.7 g ha−1 for the susceptible biotype. The biotype also had a 10-fold decrease in sensitivity to atrazine and a 28-fold decrease in sensitivity to thifensulfuron. Under field conditions, tall waterhemp was not controlled POST at the label rate of 1,100 g ha−1 of atrazine. Tall waterhemp control was less than 60% at the label rates of three commonly used POST HPPD-inhibiting herbicides in seed corn: 105 g ha−1 of mesotrione, 92 g ha−1 of tembotrione, or 18 g ha−1 of topramezone. Thus, this new tall waterhemp biotype is resistant to three herbicide modes of action: HPPD inhibitors, photosystem-II inhibitors, and acetolactate synthase (ALS) inhibitors.

Around 80% of the world population of Northern Rockhopper Penguin Eudyptes moseleyi is found at Tristan da Cunha and Gough Island in the South Atlantic Ocean, where populations appear to be declining. However, numbers of birds at Middle Island, a small satellite island of Nightingale Island at Tristan Cunha, have not been counted since 1973 when an estimated 100,000 pairs were recorded. Updated population counts were obtained for all four islands at Tristan da Cunha (Tristan, Inaccessible, Nightingale and Middle islands) in 2009 providing a census of the whole island group and the first repeat count of Middle Island. Estimated breeding numbers at these four islands were Tristan 6,700 pairs, Inaccessible 54,000 pairs, Nightingale 25,000 pairs and 83,000 pairs at Middle Island. These counts confirm that Tristan da Cunha is a vitally important site for this ?Endangered? species holding over 65% of the global population and that breeding number have been relatively stable over the last 30 years.