The effect of weeds on soil arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and agronomic traits in spring wheat (Triticum aestivumL.) under organic management in Canada

Abstract

. 2015. The effect of weeds on soil arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and agronomic traits in spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under organic management in Canada. Can. J. Plant Sci. 95: 615Á627. Understanding the influence of weeds in agroecosystems may aid in developing efficient and sustainable organic wheat production systems. We examined the effect of weeds on soil microbial communities and the performance of spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under organic management in Edmonton, AB, Canada. We grew 13 Canadian spring wheat cultivars in organically managed hand-weeded less-weedy and weedy treatments in 2010 and 2011. The less-weedy treatment exhibited greater grain yield and tillers per square meter, while kernel weight, test weight, days to maturity, plant height, grain P and protein content were not altered by weed treatment. Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) wheat cultivars CDC Go and CDC Kernen were the most yield-stable because they minimized fertile tiller reduction in response to weed pressure (10 and 13% reduction, respectively, compared with the average reduction of 20%). Other cultivars exhibited yield stability through increased kernel weight. The contribution of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) to the total phospholipid fatty acid increased in both treatments; however, the rate of this increase was greater in the weedy treatment than the less-weedy treatment (from 2.9 to 3.9%, from 2.8 to 3.1%, respectively). Weed dry biomass was positively correlated with AMF% in the less-weedy treatment only. Organic systems tend to be weedier than conventional systems. We found that weeds are important determinants of AMF proliferation in soil. In addition, choosing wheat cultivars that maintain important yield components under severe weed stress is one strategy to maximize yields in organic systems.Key words: Organic agriculture, wheat (spring), arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, weed Kubota, H., Quideau, S. A., Hucl, P. J. et Spaner, D. M. 2015. Incidence des mauvaises herbes sur la mycorhizes a`arbuscules dans le sol et sur les parame`tres agronomiques du ble´de printemps (Triticum aestivum L.) cultive´de fac¸on biologique au Canada. Can. J. Plant Sci. 95: 615Á627. Comprendre l'influence des adventices dans les e´cosyste`mes agricoles pourrait faciliter l'e´laboration de syste`mes de production efficaces et durables pour la culture biologique du ble´. Les auteurs ont examine´l'impact des mauvaises herbes sur la microflore du sol et sur le rendement du ble´de printemps (Triticum aestivum L.) cultive´de fac¸on biologique a`Edmonton, en Alberta (Canada). À cette fin, ils ont cultive´biologiquement treize varie´te´s canadiennes de ble´de printemps sur des parcelles de´sherbe´es a`la main ou envahies de mauvaises herbes en 2010 et en 2011. Les parcelles de´sherbe´es ont produit plus de grain et de talles par m 2 , mais les mauvaises herbes ne modifient pas le poids du grain, le poids spe´cifique, le nombre de jours jusqu'a`maturite´, la hauteur du plant, la teneur en P du grain ni la concentration de prote´ines. Les...

Linking species traits to agroecosystem services: a functional analysis of weed communities

“…Moreover, it is increasingly recognised that weeds can also support agroecosystem services related to production, for example by providing feed, shelter or reproduction sites to natural enemies of crop pests and/or pollinators, and by hosting mycorrhizae, thereby contributing to increased soil fertility (Kubota et al ., ). On top of this, some relatively recent works have pointed out the potential of arable weeds to provide other services, for example to support non‐production‐related biodiversity, like bird or arthropod populations (Storkey & Westbury, ; Rollin et al ., ).…”

Mapping QTLs Controlling Agronomic Traits in the ‘Attila’ × ‘CDC Go’ Spring Wheat Population under Organic Management using 90K SNP Array

“…Quantitative trait loci associated with yield and other agronomic traits have been reported on all 21 chromosomes of bread wheat (Huang et al, 2004;Cuthbert et al, 2007;Kumar et al, 2007;Bennett et al, 2012). The University of Alberta wheat breeding program has been evaluating the performance of Canadian wheat cultivars and breeding lines under both conventional and organic management systems in Alberta, Canada (Mason and Spaner, 2006;Mason et al, 2007aMason et al, , 2007bKaut et al, 2008Kaut et al, , 2009Reid et al, 2009aReid et al, , 2009bReid et al, , 2011Kubota et al, 2015). The University of Alberta wheat breeding program has been evaluating the performance of Canadian wheat cultivars and breeding lines under both conventional and organic management systems in Alberta, Canada (Mason and Spaner, 2006;Mason et al, 2007aMason et al, , 2007bKaut et al, 2008Kaut et al, , 2009Reid et al, 2009aReid et al, , 2009bReid et al, , 2011Kubota et al, 2015).…”

“…The number of QTLs and the proportion of phenotypic variance explained by each QTL are highly variable, depending on the type of population, population size, the number of environments, and the management conditions. The University of Alberta wheat breeding program has been evaluating the performance of Canadian wheat cultivars and breeding lines under both conventional and organic management systems in Alberta, Canada (Mason and Spaner, 2006;Mason et al, 2007aMason et al, , 2007bKaut et al, 2008Kaut et al, , 2009Reid et al, 2009aReid et al, , 2009bReid et al, , 2011Kubota et al, 2015). As part of this work, a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population developed from a cross between spring wheat cultivars 'Attila' (CM85836-50Y-0M-0Y-3M-0Y) and 'CDC Go' was evaluated during 2008 to 2010 under both conventionally and organically managed field conditions and genotyped with 579 diversity arrays technology (DArT) and Rht-B1 markers (Asif et al, 2015).…”

A Review on Exploring the Weed Suppressing Characteristics of Arbuscular mycorrhizal Fungi for Enhanced Plant Yield and Productivity

“…Dev., 35 (2): 54-62, 2016 between weeds dry weight and AMF percentage under the field condition. In such cases, the presence of a particular weed acts as determinants of a particular AM fungi (Kubota et al, 2015).…”