Factors Affecting Postdispersal Weed Seed Predation in Barely Fields

Weed Seed Predation in Agricultural Fields

Weed communities in agronomic fields are dominated by annual species. Summer annuals initiate growth each spring from seeds found in the upper soil profile (Figure 1). In most fields, a small percentage of the emerging plants survive and contribute new seeds to the soil seedbank. Historically, most research of the annual weed life cycle has focused on seed dormancy and emergence (A), effect of ...

Effect of Cry3Bb Bt Corn and Tefluthrin on Postdispersal Weed Seed Predation

Indirect effects of insect control strategies on weed populations are important to consider when developing robust integrated pest management strategies. Weed seed predation rates were investigated in corn managed under three contrasting treatments based on control practices for corn rootworm: (1) the transgenic crop Cry3Bb Bt corn, (2) the broad-spectrum insecticide tefluthrin, and (3) no inse...

Weed seed loss due to predation in Michigan maize fields

The influence of weed seed predation by invertebrates and vertebrates was examined in relation to distance from hedgerows in maize fields of southwestern Michigan. Experiments were conducted in spring and winter and included five common weed species, i.e., velvet-leaf (Abutilon theophrasti), redroot pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus), common lamb's-quarters (Chenopodium album), fall panicum (Pani...

Predispersal Seed Predation, Postdispersal Seed Predation and Competition in the Recruitment of Seedlings of a Native Thistle in Sandhills Prairie

Post-dispersal weed seed predation in Michigan crop fields as a function of agricultural landscape structure

Weed seed predation by invertebrates and vertebrates was compared between a simple (large crop fields embedded in a matrix of widely scattered woodlots and hedgerows) and a complex (small crop fields embedded in a matrix of numerous hedgerows and woodlots) agricultural landscape in southern Michigan. The structural differences between landscapes were evaluated by analysis of aerial photographs ...