Weed diversity as affected by tillage and ammonium glufosinate herbicide

Abstract

Farmers in Indonesia generally spray herbicides to control weeds and use tillage during the early stages of crop cultivation; consequently, these activities affect the weed composition and diversity. This study aimed to evaluate the dominance and diversity index of weeds and obtain abundance correlations according to the soil chemical characteristics, as well as the effect of the ammonium glufosinate herbicide, in different tillage systems. A non-factorial randomized block design was used, consisting of no-tillage (NT), 1-time tillage (T1) and 2-times tillage (T2), with three replications. The Cyperus rotundus and Ageratum conyzoides weed species were dominant in the tillages. The diversity indices were 2.261, 2.196 and 2.234 (moderate/stable condition), respectively for the NT, T1 and T2. For T2, there were increases of 2.82-folds, 41 populations and 2.43-folds, respectively for A. conyzoides, Cynodon dactylon and Euphorbia heterophylla, when compared to NT, while a decrease was observed in grasses for T1 and T2 (50.71 and 26.05 %, respectively). Moreover, there was a positive and significant correlation for E. heterophylla according to the soil cation exchange capacity (0.727). In contrast, four new weed species (Glyceria maxima, Leersia oryzoides, Scoparia dulcis and Anthoxanthum oculatum) were found due to the ammonium glufosinate application, in the different tillage systems.