Abstract
The paper presents the analysis of changes in weed biodiversity in spring barley cultivated in the years 1990-2004 in crop rotation with a 25% proportion of this cereal (potato - spring barley - sowing peas - winter triticale), when it was grown after potato, and in crop rotation with its 75% proportion (potato - spring barley - spring barley - spring barley), when it was grown once or twice after spring barley. In the experiment, no weed control was applied. Every year in the spring (at full emergence of the cereal) and before the harvest, the composition of weed species and numbers of particular weed species were determined, and before the harvest also their biomass. On this basis, the constancy of species in particular years, Shannon-Wiener species diversity indices and diversity profiles according to Rényi were determined. Weed species richness increased linearly at all plots during the 15-year period. <i>Chenopodium album</i> was a constant and dominant species in terms of weed species density and biomass year after year. The quality of the plot had no clear influence on the diversity of weeds in barley. Weed density and biomass showed high year-to-year variability and a positive correlation with the amount of precipitation and a negative correlation with temperature during the period of the study. The significance of the correlation between the productivity of barley and weed diversity was not confirmed.
Highlights
Contemporary weed growth control on cultivated fields is facing a dilemma how to reconcile the needs of crop protection and the need for protection of biodiversity
During the 15 years of the study, a total of 35 weeds species were identified in barley (Table 1), 32 of them were identified in the position after potato and 31 species in case of each of the positions once and twice following spring barley
Chenopodium album predominated in terms of the number and weight in the communities of weeds, while during the spring period Thlaspi arvense was represented in high numbers
Summary
Contemporary weed growth control on cultivated fields is facing a dilemma how to reconcile the needs of crop protection and the need for protection of biodiversity. Competition between weeds and crops in relation to habitat resources is obvious and undoubted. For years that perception of weeds resulted in a situation where efforts were undertaken to eliminate them at any price. Relatively recently a perception started to develop that the above measures might result in the impoverishment of the diversity of the world of organisms in those ecosystems. This applies to both weeds themselves and organisms related to them by trophic and para-trophic relations (Andreasen and Stryhn , 2008). Often the positive role of weeds in agrocenoses is noticed as well as the possibility of using them in many aspects of human life (Hochół , 2003)
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