Weed vegetation in conventional and organic farming in West Bohemia (Czech Republic)

Abstract

The paper presents species richness and composition of arable weed vegetation in the region of West Bohemia (Czech Republic) in different types of farming (conventional and organic) and grown crops (winter and spring cereals, wide-row crops). During the field survey in the years 2007 to 2017, 105 phytocoenological relevés were recorded. The average species richness in one relevé was significantly higher in organic farming, as well as total weed cover. The lowest species richness was found in wide-row crops. Recently widespread species belonged to the most frequent species in our study. Based on multivariate statistics, the effects of variables on the occurrence of weed species were found as statistically significant. Most of the variability in data was explained by crop, following by type of farming. Weed species of Fabaceae Lindl. family (especially Vicia L.) and many perennial species positively correlated with the organic type of farming. Endangered species were found mainly in organic farming and cereals. Less intensive cultivation with a higher weed cover is beneficial for the promotion of biodiversity.

Effects of conventional and organic management on plant and insect communities in a traditional elephant garlic crop

“…In fact, different taxonomic groups are known to respond differently to agricultural management, with the effects of organic farming being often dependent on single species or functional traits (Fuller et al, 2005). Most of the evidence shows that organic management increases plant species richness (Chamorro et al, 2016;Ponce et al, 2011;Ryan et al, 2010;Stein-Bachinger et al, 2021;Tyšer et al, 2021). However, also low-input, conventional farming is able to maintain a higher number of plant species in arable fields (Berbeć et al, 2020).…”

Breeding Bread-Making Wheat Varieties for Organic Farming Systems: The Need to Target Productivity, Robustness, Resource Use Efficiency and Grain Quality Traits

“…There is also increasing evidence that non-use of mineral N fertilizer reduces the severity of a range of diseases (especially biotrophic fungal pathogens) and changes the profile of weed species in organic farming systems [ 1 , 20 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ]. Similarly, there is mounting evidence that prohibition of the use of synthetic pesticides increases the density of microbial antagonists of soil-borne diseases and natural enemies (e.g., ground beetles) of invertebrate pests in agricultural ecosystems [ 1 , 20 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ].…”

“…Similarly, there is mounting evidence that prohibition of the use of synthetic pesticides increases the density of microbial antagonists of soil-borne diseases and natural enemies (e.g., ground beetles) of invertebrate pests in agricultural ecosystems [ 1 , 20 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ]. As a result, the profile and relative economic importance of different weed, disease and pest species can differ significantly between organic and conventional crop production systems [ 1 , 6 , 7 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ].…”

Incidence of thermophilic, grass and rare arable weeds in cereal fields in the Czech and Slovak Republic

“…Monitoring the diversity and structure of weediness is, therefore, an important task for recognising changes in weed vegetation. After the division of former Czechoslovakia into independent countries, such surveys and analyses only take place individually, e.g., Májeková et al (2019) and Tyšer et al (2021). Therefore, the combined dataset of weed diversity in cereal crops undertaken in the same years and under the same methodology is a unique opportunity to observe spatial trends of weeds in the largest group of crops across the landscape.…”