Evolutionary-thinking in agricultural weed management

PAUL NEVE; MARTIN VILA-AIUB; FABRICE ROUX

NEW PHYTOLOGIST

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Año: 2009 p. 783 - 793

0028-646X

Agricultural weeds evolve in response to crop cultivation. Nevertheless, the centralimportance of evolutionary ecology for understanding weed invasion, persistenceand management in agroecosystems is not widely acknowledged. This paper callsfor more evolutionarily-enlightened weed management, in which managementprinciples are informed by evolutionary biology to prevent or minimize weed adaptationand spread. As a first step, a greater knowledge of the extent, structure andsignificance of genetic variation within and between weed populations is requiredto fully assess the potential for weed adaptation. The evolution of resistance toherbicides is a classic example of weed adaptation. Even here, most researchfocuses on describing the physiological and molecular basis of resistance, ratherthan conducting studies to better understand the evolutionary dynamics of selectionfor resistance. We suggest approaches to increase the application of evolutionary-thinking to herbicide resistance research. Weed population dynamicsmodels are increasingly important tools in weed management, yet these modelsoften ignore intrapopulation and interpopulation variability, neglecting the potentialfor weed adaptation in response to management. Future agricultural weedmanagement can benefit from greater integration of ecological and evolutionaryprinciples to predict the long-term responses of weed populations to changingweed management, agricultural environments and global climate.