MacLaren, Chloe and Storkey, Jonathan and Menegat, Alexander and Metcalfe, Helen and Dehnen-Schmutz, Katharina
(2020).
An ecological future for weed science to sustain crop production and the environment. A review.
Agronomy for Sustainable Development. 40
, 24
, 1-29
[Article Review/Survey]
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Abstract
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 weedsat the agroecosystem levelthat, 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.
Authors/Creators: | MacLaren, Chloe and Storkey, Jonathan and Menegat, Alexander and Metcalfe, Helen and Dehnen-Schmutz, Katharina | ||||||
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Title: | An ecological future for weed science to sustain crop production and the environment. A review | ||||||
Series Name/Journal: | Agronomy for Sustainable Development | ||||||
Year of publishing : | 2020 | ||||||
Volume: | 40 | ||||||
Article number: | 24 | ||||||
Number of Pages: | 29 | ||||||
Publisher: | Springer | ||||||
ISSN: | 1774-0746 | ||||||
Language: | English | ||||||
Publication Type: | Article Review/Survey | ||||||
Article category: | Scientific peer reviewed | ||||||
Version: | Published version | ||||||
Copyright: | Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 | ||||||
Full Text Status: | Public | ||||||
Subjects: | (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 4 Agricultural Sciences > 401 Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries > Agricultural Science (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 1 Natural sciences > 106 Biological Sciences (Medical to be 3 and Agricultural to be 4) > Ecology | ||||||
Keywords: | Ecological weed management, Sustainability, Agroecosystems, Weed diversity, Weed community, Weed-crop competition | ||||||
URN:NBN: | urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-107004 | ||||||
Permanent URL: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-107004 | ||||||
Additional ID: |
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ID Code: | 17351 | ||||||
Faculty: | NJ - Fakulteten för naturresurser och jordbruksvetenskap | ||||||
Department: | (NL, NJ) > Dept. of Crop Production Ecology | ||||||
Deposited By: | SLUpub Connector | ||||||
Deposited On: | 28 Aug 2020 09:43 | ||||||
Metadata Last Modified: | 15 Jan 2021 19:26 |
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