Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T14:15:12.487Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

How Important are Crop Spatial Pattern and Density for Weed Suppression by Spring Wheat?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Jannie Maj Olsen ,
Hans-Werner Griepentrog ,
Jon Nielsen  and
Jacob Weiner
Jannie Maj Olsen*
Affiliation:
Department of Agriculture and Ecology, University of Copenhagen, DK-1958 Frederiksberg, Denmark
Hans-Werner Griepentrog
Affiliation:
Department of Agriculture and Ecology, University of Copenhagen, DK-1958 Frederiksberg, Denmark
Jon Nielsen
Affiliation:
Department of Agriculture and Ecology, University of Copenhagen, DK-1958 Frederiksberg, Denmark
Jacob Weiner
Affiliation:
Department of Agriculture and Ecology, University of Copenhagen, DK-1958 Frederiksberg, Denmark
*
Corresponding author's E-mail: jols@life.ku.dk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Previous research has shown that both the density and spatial pattern of wheat have an influence on crop growth and weed suppression, but it is not clear what degree of uniformity is necessary to achieve major improvements in weed suppression. Field experiments were performed over 3 yr to investigate the effects of crop density and different spatial distributions on weed suppression. The spatial pattern of spring wheat sown in five patterns and three densities in small weed-infested plots were analyzed with the use of digitized photographs of field plots to describe the locations of individual wheat plants as x and y coordinates. We used a simple quantitative measure, Morisita's index, to measure the degree of spatial uniformity. Increased crop density resulted in reduced weed biomass and increased crop biomass every year, but crop pattern had significant effects on weed and crop biomass in the first year only. Weather conditions during the second and third years were very dry, resulting in very low weed biomass production. We hypothesize that water deficiency increased the importance of belowground relative to aboveground competition by reducing biomass production, making competition more size symmetric, and reducing the effect of crop spatial pattern on weed growth. The results indicate that increased crop density in cereals can play an important role in increasing the crop's competitive advantage over weeds, and that spatial uniformity maximizes the effect of density when low resource levels or abiotic stress do not limit total biomass production.

Keywords

Spring wheat, Triticum aestivum LCrop–weed competitioncrop sowing patternMorisita indexcrop density
Type
Weed Management
Information
Weed Science , Volume 60 , Issue 3 , September 2012 , pp. 501 - 509
Copyright
Copyright © Weed Science Society of America 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Literature Cited

Auškalnienė, O. and Auškalnis, A. 2008. The influence of spring wheat plant density on weed suppression and grain yield. Zemdirbyste. 95:5–12.Google Scholar
Auškalnienė, O., Pšibišauskienė, G., Auškalnis, A., and Kadžys, A. 2010. Cultivar and plant density influence on weediness in spring barley crops. Zemdirbyste. 97:53–60.Google Scholar
Blackshaw, R. E. 1993. Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) Density and row spacing effects on competition with green foxtail (Setaria viridis). Weed Sci. 41:403–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyd, N. S., Brennan, E. B., Smith, R. F., and Yokota, R. 2009. Effect of seeding rate and planting arrangement on rye cover crop and weed growth. Agron. J. 101:47–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Champion, G. T., Froud-Williams, R. J., and Holland, J. M. 1998. Interactions between wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivar, row spacing and density and the effect on weed suppression and crop yield. Ann. Appl. Biol. 133:443–453.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christensen, S. 1995. Weed suppression ability of spring barley varieties. Weed Res. 35:241–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diggle, P. J. 2003. Statistical Analysis of Spatial Point Patterns. Oxford, United Kingdom Oxford University Press. 159 p.Google Scholar
Fischer, R. A. and Miles, R. E. 1973. The role of spatial pattern in the competition between crop plants and weeds. A theoretical analysis. Math. Biosci. 43:88–94.Google Scholar
Hashem, A., Radosevich, S. R., and Roush, N. L. 1998. Effect of proximity factors on competition between winter wheat (Triticum aestivum) and Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum). Weed Sci. 46:181–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kristensen, L., Olsen, J., Weiner, J., and Griepentrog, H. W. 2006. Describing the spatial pattern of crop plants with special reference to crop–weed competition studies. Field Crop Res. 96:207–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lemerle, D., Cousens, R. D., Gill, G. S., Peltzer, S. J., Moerkerk, M., Murphy, C. E., Collins, D. J., and Cullis, B. R. 2004. Reliability of higher seeding rates of wheat for increased competitiveness with weeds in low rainfall environments. J. Agric. Sci. 142:395–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lemerle, D., Gill, G. S., Murphy, C. E., Walker, S. R., Cousens, R. D., Mokhtari, S., Peltzer, S. J., Coleman, R., and Luckett, D. J. 2001a. Genetic improvement and agronomy for enhanced wheat competitiveness with weeds. Austral. J. Agric. Res. 52:527–548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lemerle, D., Verbeek, B., Cousens, R. D., and Coombes, N. E. 1996. The potential for selecting wheat varieties strongly competitive against weeds. Weed Res. 36:505–513.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lemerle, D., Verbeek, B., and Orchard, B. 2001b. Ranking the ability of wheat varieties to compete with Lolium rigidum . Weed Res. 41:197–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malik, V. S., Swanton, C. J., and Michaels, T. E. 1993. Interaction of white bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) cultivars, row spacing, and seeding density with annual weeds. Weed Sci. 41:62–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mead, R. 1966. A relationship between individual plant spacing and yield. Ann. Bot. 30:301–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mohler, C. L. 2001. Enhancing the competitive ability of crops. Pages 269–321 in Liebman, M., Mohler, C. L., and Staver, C. P., eds. Ecological Management of Agricultural Weeds. Cambridge, United Kingdom Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, S. D., Yakubu, Y., Weise, S. F., and Swanton, C. J. 1996. Effect of planting patterns and inter-row cultivation on competition between corn (Zea mays) and late emerging weeds. Weed Sci. 44:856–870.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olsen, J., Kristensen, L., and Weiner, J. 2005a. Effects of density and spatial pattern of winter wheat on suppression of different weed species. Weed Sci. 53:690–694.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olsen, J., Kristensen, L., and Weiner, J. 2006. Influence of sowing density and spatial pattern of spring wheat (Triticum aestivum) on the suppression of different weed species. Weed Biol. Manag. 6:165–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olsen, J., Kristensen, L., Weiner, J., and Griepentrog, H-W. 2005b. Increased density and spatial uniformity increase weed suppression by spring wheat. Weed Res. 45:316–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Regnier, E. and Bakelana, K. B. 1995. Crop planting pattern effects on early growth and canopy shape of cultivated and wild oats (Avena fatua). Weed Sci. 43:88–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ripley, B. D. 1981. Spatial Statistics. New York Wiley. 252 p.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwinning, S. and Weiner, J. 1998. Mechanisms determining the degree of size-asymmetry in competition among plants. Oecologia. 113:447–455.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seiter, S., Altemose, C. E., and Davis, M. H. 2004. Forage soybean yield and quality responses to plant density and row distance. Agron. J. 96:966–970.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanji, A., Zimdahl, R. L., and Westra, P. 1997. The competitive ability of wheat (Triticum aestivum) compared to rigid ryegrass (Lolium rigidum) and cowcokle (Vaccaria hispanica). Weed Sci. 45:481–487.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiner, J. 1990. Asymmetric competition in plant populations. Trends Ecol. Evol. 5:360–364.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weiner, J., Andersen, S. B., Wille, W. K-M., Griepentrog, H-W., and Olsen, J. M. 2010. Evolutionary agroecology: the potential for cooperative, high density, weed-suppressing cereals. Evol. Appl. 3:473–479.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weiner, J., Griepentrog, H-W., and Kristensen, L. 2001. Suppression of weeds by spring wheat (Triticum aestivum) increases with crop density and spatial uniformity. J. Appl. Ecol. 38:784–790.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, B. J., Wright, K. J., Brain, P., Clements, M., and Stephens, E. 1995. Predicting the competitive effects of weed and crop density on weed biomass, weed seed production and crop yield in wheat. Weed Res. 35:265–278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar