The ecophysiological determinants of nitrophily in annual weed species

Plant nitrophily plays a key role in weed community assembly. To date, the determinants of the success of nitrophilic weeds and of the decline of oligotrophic weeds in intensive cropping systems are not fully understood. This study investigated which ecophysiological traits related to carbon and N nutrition explain plant nitrophily in field annual species. Twelve species (consisting of monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous species, as well as crops and weeds) covering the oligotrophic‐nitrophilic continuum were grown in a glasshouse experiment at two contrasted conditions of soil‐nitrogen supply. From measured plant growth variables, ecophysiological traits were calculated to account for plant nutritional strategies. Globally, whatever the soil‐nitrogen supply, increased nitrophily was associated with a decreased allocation of carbon to root vs. shoot. At high soil‐nitrogen only, increased nitrophily was also generally associated with an increased nitrogen uptake activity per unit of root biomass, pointing to a trade‐off between oligotrophic species with a preferential carbon investment in root structure and nitrophilic species with a preferential carbon investment in root activity. Beyond these global trends explaining nitrophily, results also show that different strategies are possible for plant species to be considered as nitrophilic. This study provides evidence on why adjusting N fertilisation in quantity, in space (with nitrogen fertiliser placement on the row) or in time can be useful strategies to manage the most nitrophilic weeds, which are also the most problematic in intensive cropping systems.