Evaluation of finger weeder safety and efficacy for intra-row weed removal in irrigated field crops

Increased demand for pesticide-free food and the development of herbicide-resistant weed populations have created a need for non-chemical weed-control tools. A candidate mechanical tool for controlling weeds in the seeding line (intra-row zone) is the finger weeder. This study thus aimed to evaluate the safety and weed-control efficacy of the finger weeder in various irrigated field crops. Eight field trials were conducted in processing tomato, sweet corn, sunflower, cotton, and beetroot over 2 years. The finger weeder treatments were applied as the sole weed-control method (single or double treatments) and in combination with herbicides. A mini meta-analysis was used to evaluate the overall effect of the finger weeder treatments on crop stand and yield and on weed control efficacy. Weed density in the control not treated with herbicides nor a finger weeder ranged between 2 and 62 weeds m⁻². The finger weeder treatments resulted in a significant reduction in weed density, which ranged between 40% and 90%. The weed density following the double finger weeder treatment was not significantly different from that for the conventional herbicide-based treatment (p = 0.32) and could therefore be considered as an effective environmentally friendly alternative. Furthermore, a single FW treatment integrated with herbicide application gave better weed control than the conventional herbicide treatment (p = 0.04). This treatment was safe for the crops with no significant stand (p = 0.19) or yield (p = 0.29) reductions compared to commercial treatment. The results of this study demonstrate the promise of the finger weeder as an effective tool within integrated weed management systems for conventional agro-systems. The tool offers a rational weed-control solution for sustainable systems under irrigation.     

Salvinia plants in trade: what species are we actually talking about?

Incorrect labelling of plants in trade and misidentification are widespread. Likewise, in trade numerous names are being used for the ornamental aquatic plant known as ‘Kariba weed’, but rarely the correct scientific name Salvinia molesta Mitch. For inspection services of EPPO member countries, correct identification of S. molesta has become important since the species was added to the EPPO A2 List and the List of Union concern in accordance with EU regulation 1143/2014 based on an EPPO Pest Risk Analysis (PRA) for the species. Inspections and a targetted survey of Salvinia plants in trade in the Netherlands were performed and additional material was obtained from wild sources in South Africa, Hungary and the United States. Specimen identification was verified by comparison with the herbarium collection at Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden and with the sequences available in NCBI GenBank database. This paper provides the tools to correctly identity the relevant Salvinia species.     

二氯喹啉草酮与二氯喹啉酸的除草活性及对水稻安全性的比较

采用整株生物测定法测定两种除草剂二氯喹啉草酮与二氯喹啉酸茎叶处理对水稻田杂草的生物活性及对水稻的安全性。结果表明:当二氯喹啉草酮和二氯喹啉酸有效成分剂量均为600 g/hm2时, 两种除草剂对稗属杂草、鳢肠的鲜重抑制率均高于94%, 其GR90为107.35~558.58 g/hm2; 对马唐和耳叶水苋的鲜重抑制率低于85%, 对抗二氯喹啉酸西来稗和千金子的鲜重抑制率低于50%; 不同的是二氯喹啉草酮对丁香蓼和异型莎草的鲜重抑制率分别为92.17%、94.33%, 均显著高于二氯喹啉酸(83.64%, 85.57%)。二氯喹啉草酮和二氯喹啉酸对1.5叶期水稻安全性差, 选择性指数为2.53~3.58; 对3.5叶期水稻安全, 选择性指数大于4, 各处理水稻鲜重与对照组之间无显著差异。本着高效、安全、经济的原则, 不推荐二氯喹啉草酮用于防除水稻田禾本科杂草, 仅对部分阔叶类和莎草科杂草发生严重的水稻田, 二氯喹啉草酮可以作为补充除草剂。     

2022年上海市稻田杂草大发生原因剖析及对策建议

在对稻田杂草发生危害长期跟踪监测和调查走访的基础上, 从主观?客观和管理层面的10个方面, 对2022年上海市稻田杂草大发生原因进行了剖析, 并针对当前稻田杂草防除中存在的问题, 从政策引导?技术支撑?组织管理等方面提出了对策建议?     

Changes in the herbicide sensitivity and competitive ability of Abutilon theophrasti over 28 years: Implications for hormesis and weed evolution

BACKGROUND

The potential of weed species to respond to selection forces affecting the evolution of weedy traits such as competitive ability is poorly understood. This research characterized evolutionary growth changes in a single Abutilon theophrasti Medik. population comparing multiple generations collected from 1988 to 2016. A competition study was performed to understand changes in competitive ability, and a herbicide dose–response study was carried out to assess changes in sensitivity to acetolactate synthase-inhibiting herbicides and glyphosate over time.

RESULTS

When grown in monoculture, A. theophrasti biomass production per plant increased steadily across year-lines while leaf number decreased. In replacement experiments, A. theophrasti plants from newer year-lines were more competitive and produced more biomass and leaf area than the oldest year-line. No clear differences in sensitivity to imazamox were observed among year-lines. However, starting in 1995, this A. theophrasti population exhibited a progressive increase in growth in response to a sublethal dose of glyphosate (52 g a.e. ha⁻¹), with the 2009 and 2016 year-lines having more than 50% higher biomass than the nontreated control.

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrates that weeds can rapidly evolve increased competitive ability. Furthermore, the results indicate the possibility of changes in glyphosate hormesis over time. These results highlight the importance of the role that rapid (i.e., subdecadal) evolution of growth traits might have on the sustainability of weed management strategies. © 2023 The Authors. Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.     

Detection of Ecballium elaterium in hedgerow olive orchards using a low-cost uncrewed aerial vehicle and open-source algorithms

BACKGROUND

Ecballium elaterium (common name: squirting cucumber) is an emerging weed problem in hedgerow or superintensive olive groves under no tillage. It colonizes the inter-row area infesting the natural or sown cover crops, and is considered a hard-to-control weed. Research in other woody crops has shown E. elaterium has a patchy distribution, which makes this weed susceptible to design a site-specific control strategy only addressed to E. elaterium patches. Therefore, the aim of this work was to develop a methodology based on the analysis of imagery acquired with an uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) to detect and map E. elaterium infestations in hedgerow olive orchards.

RESULTS

The study was conducted in two superintensive olive orchards, and the images were taken using a UAV equipped with an RGB sensor. Flights were conducted on two dates: in May, when there were various weeds infesting the orchard, and in September, when E. elaterium was the only infesting weed. UAV-orthomosaics in the first scenario were classified using random forest models, and the orthomosaics from September with E. elaterium as the only weed, were analyzed using an unsupervised algorithm. In both cases, the overall accuracies were over 0.85, and the producer's accuracies for E. elaterium ranged between 0.74 and 1.00.

CONCLUSION

These results allow the design of a site-specific and efficient herbicide control protocol which would represent a step forward in sustainable weed management. The development of these algorithms in free and open-source software fosters their application in small and medium farms. © 2022 The Authors. Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.     

Genetic basis and origin of resistance to acetolactate synthase inhibitors in Amaranthus palmeri from Spain and Italy

BACKGROUND

Amaranthus palmeri is an aggressive annual weed native to the United States, which has become invasive in some European countries. Populations resistant to acetolactate synthase (ALS) inhibitors have been recorded in Spain and Italy, but the evolutionary origin of the resistance traits remains unknown. Bioassays were conducted to identify cross-resistance to ALS inhibitors and a haplotype-based genetic approach was used to elucidate the origin and distribution of resistance in both countries.

RESULTS

Amaranthus palmeri populations were resistant to thifensulfuron-methyl and imazamox, and the 574-Leu mutant ALS allele was found to be the main cause of resistance among them. In two Spanish populations, 376-Glu and 197-Thr mutant ALS alleles were also found. The haplotype analyses revealed the presence of two and four distinct 574-Leu mutant haplotypes in the Italian and Spanish populations, respectively. None was common to both countries, but some mutant haplotypes were shared between geographically close populations or between populations more than 100 km apart. Wide genetic diversity was found in two very close Spanish populations.

CONCLUSION

ALS-resistant A. palmeri populations were introduced to Italy and Spain from outside Europe. Populations from both countries have different evolutionary histories and originate from independent introduction events. ALS resistance then spread over short and long distances by seed dispersal. The higher number and genetic diversity among mutant haplotypes from the Spanish populations indicated recurrent invasions. The implementation of control tactics to limit seed dispersal and the establishment of A. palmeri is recommended in both countries. © 2023 The Authors. Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.     

木芙蓉上亚利桑那跳小蜂对扶桑绵粉蚧的寄生研究

扶桑绵粉蚧Phenacoccus solenopsis Tinsley是我国重要观赏和药用植物木芙蓉上的主要害虫之一,但迄今对其被优势天敌亚利桑那跳小蜂Aenasius arizonensis(Girault)（班氏跳小蜂A.bambawalei Hayat）的寄生情况了解甚少。为此,自2017年开始,在浙江兰溪西部的一个木芙蓉种植区开展了为期四年的调查,每年6—9月,分批从木芙蓉植株上采集3龄若虫及未产卵雌成虫,于室内观察寄生情况;并于其中两年观察了不同生境中的寄生情况,探讨了寄生季节变化的动态特征及相关影响因素、杂草促进寄生的途径以及增强该粉蚧自然控制的措施。结果表明,在前期（6—7月）寄生率总体上较低,其中两年最高分别仅有38%和32%,另外两年也很少发现被寄生个体,而且该时期寄生率年份间存在明显波动。而在后期（8—9月）,寄生率相对较高,且具有从8月上旬开始逐步上升这一显著特点。观察期间,最高寄生率均出现于各年份9月下旬,四年中分别为89%、62%、55%和13%,年份间差异十分明显。生境类型可对寄生水平产生较大影响,与木芙蓉地块内和杂草稀疏的田埂相比,杂草丛生的田埂上和路边区域中粉蚧被寄生率相对较高;另外,在毗邻田块的路边地段,9月上旬的寄生比例一定程度上高于距离木芙蓉地块较远的路边地段。本研究表明,木芙蓉上亚利桑那跳小蜂对扶桑绵粉蚧的控制作用随年份和季节剧烈变化,一些生境诸如杂草较多的地段有利于增强其控害作用。     

基于LS-SVM的小水电站年发电量智能预测模型

针对小水电站年发电量序列的特点,将最小二乘支持向量机(least squares support vector machine,LS-SVM)回归模型引入年发电量预测领域,并给出了相应的过程和算法。与常规基于人工神经网络(artificial neural net-works,ANN)的智能预测方法比较,该模型优点是明显的:①将神经网络迭代学习问题转化为直接求解多元线性方程;②整个训练过程中有且仅有一个全局极值点,确定了预测的稳定性。最后,一个实际的预测例子表明:该模型实现容易、预测准确,适用于小水电站预测。     

基于小波分析的年最大径流预测方

径流序列可以看成是各种不同成分线性叠加构成的时间序列。利用小波变换良好的局部化时频分析能力，将年最大径流序列进行分解，使其趋势项、周期项和随机项得以分离。各子序列分别代表不同的时间尺度，反映了各种物理因素对径流过程的影响。然后根据各子序列的特性分别建立幂函数、周期函数或ARMA模型并进行预测。最后将各子序列的预测值合成，得到年最大径流序列的预测值。对宜昌站1991年至2002年最大径流量的预测结果表明，该方法是切实可行的。并指出小波包变换在分析中、高频信息方面优于小波变换，有助于进一步提高预测的精度。