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Agricultural intensification and climate change have increased the threat from weeds

Weeds represent a significant threat to crop yields and global food security. We analysed data on weed competition from the world's longest running agricultural experiment to ask whether potential yield losses from weeds have increased in response to management and environmental change since th...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Storkey, Jonathan, Mead, Andrew, Addy, John, MacDonald, Andrew J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8252568/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33759302
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15585
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author Storkey, Jonathan
Mead, Andrew
Addy, John
MacDonald, Andrew J.
author_facet Storkey, Jonathan
Mead, Andrew
Addy, John
MacDonald, Andrew J.
author_sort Storkey, Jonathan
collection PubMed
description Weeds represent a significant threat to crop yields and global food security. We analysed data on weed competition from the world's longest running agricultural experiment to ask whether potential yield losses from weeds have increased in response to management and environmental change since the advent of the Green Revolution in the 1960s. On plots where inorganic nitrogen fertiliser has been applied, potential yield losses from weeds have consistently increased since 1969. This was explained by a warming climate, measured as air temperature averaged over the growing season for the weeds, and a shift towards shorter crop cultivars. Weeds also reduced yield proportionally more on plots with higher rates of nitrogen which had higher yields when weeds were controlled; the relative benefit of herbicides was, therefore, proportional to potential crop yield. Reducing yield losses from weed competition is increasingly challenging because of the evolution of herbicide resistance. Our results demonstrate that weeds now represent a greater inherent threat to crop production than before the advent of herbicides and integrated, sustainable solutions to weed management are urgently needed to protect the high yield potential of modern crop genotypes.
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spelling pubmed-82525682021-07-09 Agricultural intensification and climate change have increased the threat from weeds Storkey, Jonathan Mead, Andrew Addy, John MacDonald, Andrew J. Glob Chang Biol Primary Research Articles Weeds represent a significant threat to crop yields and global food security. We analysed data on weed competition from the world's longest running agricultural experiment to ask whether potential yield losses from weeds have increased in response to management and environmental change since the advent of the Green Revolution in the 1960s. On plots where inorganic nitrogen fertiliser has been applied, potential yield losses from weeds have consistently increased since 1969. This was explained by a warming climate, measured as air temperature averaged over the growing season for the weeds, and a shift towards shorter crop cultivars. Weeds also reduced yield proportionally more on plots with higher rates of nitrogen which had higher yields when weeds were controlled; the relative benefit of herbicides was, therefore, proportional to potential crop yield. Reducing yield losses from weed competition is increasingly challenging because of the evolution of herbicide resistance. Our results demonstrate that weeds now represent a greater inherent threat to crop production than before the advent of herbicides and integrated, sustainable solutions to weed management are urgently needed to protect the high yield potential of modern crop genotypes. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021-03-23 2021-06 /pmc/articles/PMC8252568/ /pubmed/33759302 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15585 Text en © 2021 The Authors. Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Primary Research Articles
Storkey, Jonathan
Mead, Andrew
Addy, John
MacDonald, Andrew J.
Agricultural intensification and climate change have increased the threat from weeds
title Agricultural intensification and climate change have increased the threat from weeds
title_full Agricultural intensification and climate change have increased the threat from weeds
title_fullStr Agricultural intensification and climate change have increased the threat from weeds
title_full_unstemmed Agricultural intensification and climate change have increased the threat from weeds
title_short Agricultural intensification and climate change have increased the threat from weeds
title_sort agricultural intensification and climate change have increased the threat from weeds
topic Primary Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8252568/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33759302
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15585
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