نشریه تحقیقات نوین در گیاه پزشکی
سال یازدهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 28، زمستان 1401)

Weed management is an essential element of successful crop production. In recent years, an exponential rise in human population and drastic changes in climate and production techniques have intensified the crop production systems and increased the weed infestations. The evolution of herbicide resistance in a large number of weed species across the world has further aggravated the situation. These circumstances require sustainable weed management tools that can be used effectively to achieve decent crop yields without affecting the environment and ecosystem services negatively. Some of the conventional weed control methods, including the use of preventive measures, tillage and mechanical control, crop competition, soil coverage, crop rotations and crop diversification, are still effective and ecofriendly. No single weed management tactic has proven to be the “magic bullet” for eliminating weed problems, given the nature of weed communities, but a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms that influence the success or failure of weeds in agro-ecosystems will further favor the development and adoption of sustainable weed management systems for agricultural crops. Although the ecologically-based, cultural and physical weed control methods have great potential for sustainable weed management, herbicides cannot be completely left out. In fact, herbicides could be an effective tool in an integrated weed management kit. However, the true integrated weed management strategies must have a balance between chemical and non-chemical options that can be used judiciously in order to achieve a reasonable weed control. Sustainable weed management is an achievable goal provided that efforts are made to diversify the management. In this paper, we will review the most common conventional soybean weed management strategies from a sustainability perspective.

Seed dormancy is the failure of viable seeds to germinate in a specified period of time under optimal conditions for germination of non-dormant seeds and is one of the main mechanisms responsible for invasion and persistence of weeds in agricultural fields. Environmental factors such as temperature, moisture and chemicals affect the seed dormancy release and induction and consequently germination and seedling emergence patterns in the field. Thus, knowledge about seed dormancy and its relation with environmental factors is essential to predict the timing of germination and implementation of a rational strategy of weed management. The soil seed bank is the primary source of new infestations of annual weeds in crop production systems. Some annual weeds produce seeds that remain viable in the soil for many years, while others produce seeds that may be viable for only a single season. Seed persistence also may be influenced by depth of burial. Thus, knowledge of the length of seed persistence in the soil seed bank and periodicity of seedling emergence as influenced by the environment are of great importance for effective weed management. In this review, we present dormancy and germination models to predict timing and extent of emergence from weed seed bank. We hope that this paper will serve to give a general insight into modeling weed seedbank dormancy and germination and their use in weed science.