Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Managing arable weeds for biodiversity.

Jonathan Storkey1, Duncan B Westbury

  • 1Plant and Invertebrate Ecology Division, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire AL5 2JQ, UK. jonathan.storkey@bbsrc.ac.uk

Pest Management Science
|April 18, 2007
PubMed
Summary

Declining arable weeds and farmland birds in the UK necessitate new strategies. Research explores managing beneficial weeds within crops to support biodiversity while controlling harmful species.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Rethinking land-use Strategies: A multi-objective analysis of combined sparing and sharing approaches applied across great britain.

Journal of environmental management·2025
Same author

Trade-off between pollinator-wildflower diversity & grassland yields.

npj biodiversity·2025
Same author

Quantifying farm sustainability through the lens of ecological theory.

Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society·2024
Same author

Mapping the ratio of agricultural inputs to yields reveals areas with potentially less sustainable farming.

The Science of the total environment·2023
Same author

A new Rothamsted long-term field experiment for the twenty-first century: principles and practice.

Agronomy for sustainable development·2023
Same author

Developing perennial wildflower strips for use in Mediterranean orchard systems.

Ecology and evolution·2023

Area of Science:

  • Agricultural Ecology
  • Conservation Biology
  • Weed Science

Background:

  • Intensified crop production has led to reduced UK arable weed diversity and farmland bird populations.
  • Current environmental schemes focusing on uncropped land are ineffective for annual weeds due to perennial dominance and lack of disturbance.
  • Farmland birds require resources within fields, indicating a need for in-crop weed management.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate reconciling crop production with biodiversity recovery.
  • To identify weed species with biodiversity value that compete minimally with crops.
  • To assess available tools for managing beneficial and pernicious weeds in arable systems.

Main Methods:

  • Analyzing spatial separation of cropping and wildlife areas.
  • Evaluating perennial dominance in uncropped habitats.
  • Developing weed competition models for yield loss prediction.
  • Exploiting herbicide selectivity for targeted weed management.

Main Results:

  • Spatially separating cropping from wildlife areas has limited success in restoring annual weed populations.
  • Perennial vegetation dominates uncropped habitats, hindering recovery of annual weeds.
  • In-crop management is crucial for farmland bird recovery, requiring identification of beneficial weed species.

Conclusions:

  • Effective in-crop weed management is essential for reversing declines in arable weeds and farmland birds.
  • Developing tools to identify and manage beneficial weeds alongside pernicious ones is critical.
  • Overcoming farmer opposition requires demonstrating the viability of integrated weed management strategies.

Related Experiment Videos