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The number of pollinators in agro-ecosystems world wide has declined alarminglyin recent decades due to poora gricultural practices such as the intensive use of pesticides and monocultures.

Trabajo presentado en el XXII Congreso Latinoamericano de Malezas (ALAM) y el I Congreso Argentino de Malezas (ASACIM) bajo el lema “Ciencia y producción: hacia un manejo racional”, celebrado en Buenos Aires el 9 y 10 de septiembre de 2015.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) Azevém (Lolium spp.) é uma espécie infestante amplamente disseminada em áreas de lavoura em todo o mundo. Devido à rusticidade e alta taxa de crescimento, essa espécie é amplamente cultivada, tanto para a cobertura de solo quanto para produção de forragem. O uso intensivo de herbicidas com o mesmo mecanismo de ação resultou na seleção de populações de azevém resistentes, principalmente ao glyphosate. Os objetivos da tese foram: 1) Caracterizar a resposta ao glyphosate e determinar o fator resistência em populações de azevém coletados nas Regiões Sul e Sudoeste Paranaense. 2) Estudar o envolvimento do mecanismo relacionado ao local de ação na resistência ao glyphosate em populações de azevém. 3) Obter informações sobre a demografia de azevém, em populações suscetível e resistente ao glyphosate. 4) Desenvolver e validar um modelo empírico para descrever a emergência de azevém com base no acúmulo térmico do solo. 5) Desenvolver um modelo cohort-estocástico de dinâmica populacional de azevém em populações suscetível e resistente ao glyphosate e simular estratégias de manejo para a espécie sob o efeito de dois cenários climáticos. Diversos experimentos foram desenvolvidos em casa de vegetação, laboratório e a campo pertencentes a UTFPR, Campus Pato Branco, Brasil e IAS/CSIC, Espanha. Em áreas de lavoura das regiões Sul e Sudoeste do Paraná, foram coletadas amostras de sementes de 44 populações de azevém e submetidas a ensaios de resposta a doses do herbicida glyphosate. Em populações resistentes (MR20AR, VT05AR e RN02AR) e suscetíveis (MR05AS, VT07AS e RN01AS) ao glyphosate foi estudado o mecanismo de resistência relacionado ao local de ação. Para o estudo de demografia, nas populações resistentes e suscetíveis, foram avaliados os parâmetros emergência, sobrevivência de diferentes cohorts de plantas e potencial de produção de sementes. Modelo baseado no acúmulo térmico para descrever a emergência de azevém foi desenvolvido e validado. Foi desenvolvido um modelo de dinâmica de populações para as populações suscetível e resistente ao glyphosate. Há elevada variabilidade de resposta das populações de azevém ao glyphosate, com fator resistência variando entre 1,37 e 5,5. Em duas (MR20AR e RN02AR) das três populações resistentes estudadas, foi detectado o aumento do número de cópias do gene da EPSPs (11 a 57x). Em relação à demografia, as plântulas apresentaram rápida taxa de emergência (≈30 dias) sob condições favoráveis, com sobrevivência de acordo com os cohorts de plantas (média de 2 a 10%), e produção de sementes fortemente regulada pela densidade de plantas (90% com 50 pl m-2). As populações resistentes (13830 s pl-1) diferiram das suscetíveis (20300 s pl-1) apenas quanto ao potencial de produção de sementes em baixa densidade. O modelo baseado no acúmulo térmico no solo se mostrou eficiente em descrever a emergência de plântulas da espécie, sendo necessário 390 TT para o início da emergência e 590 TT para atingir 90% de emergência. O modelo de dinâmica de populações demonstrou que o banco de sementes das populações suscetível e resistente tende a se estabilizar em patamares semelhantes (≈20000 s m-2) e que o incremento médio de temperatura de 2,5°C resultou em aumento do número de sementes presentes no banco (≈25000 s m-2). As estratégias de interferência química das plantas ou a rotação de cultura com trigo/soja ou aveia/milho demonstraram alta eficiência e foram capazes de suprimir o banco de sementes em mais de 75%. Conclui-se que a amplificação gênica é um mecanismo relacionado com a resistência de plantas de azevém ao glyphosate na Região Sul do Brasil. Os modelos preditivos desenvolvidos na presente tese fornecem uma melhor compreensão do desenvolvimento populacional de azevém assim como modelo termal poderá ser utilizado como ferramenta para auxiliar no manejo da espécie. Ryegrass (Lolium spp.) is a weed widely spread in farming areas around the world. Due to its rusticity and high growth rate, this species is widely cultivated, both for soil cover and forage production. The intensive use of herbicides with the same mechanism has led to the selection of herbicide-resistant Italian ryegrass populations, especially to glyphosate. The objectives of this thesis were: 1) Characterize the response to glyphosate and assess the resistance index in Italian ryegrass populations collected in the South and Southwest Regions of Paraná State. 2) Study the involvement of a target site mechanism resistance to glyphosate in Italian ryegrass populations. 3) Get information on the demography of Italian ryegrass populations, susceptible and resistant to glyphosate. 4) Develop and validate an empirical model to describe Italian ryegrass emergence based on soil thermal accumulation. 5) Develop a cohort-stochastic model of Italian ryegrass population dynamics in susceptible and glyphosate resistant populations and simulate management strategies for this species under the effect of two climate scenarios. Several experiments have been developed in the greenhouse, laboratory and field of UTFPR, Campus Pato Branco, Brazil and IAS/CSIC, Córdoba, Spain. In farming areas in the South and Southwest Regions of Paraná State, seeds samples from 44 Italian ryegrass populations were collected and tested for glyphosate response. In resistant (MR20AR, VT05AR and RN02AR) and susceptible (MR05AS, VT07AS and RN01AS) populations to glyphosate, the target site mechanism herbicide resistance was investigated. For the demography study, in resistant and susceptible populations, the parameters, emergence, survival and potential for seed production were evaluated. The model based on thermal accumulation to describe the Italian ryegrass emergence was developed and validated. The demographic parameters were combined with literature data to develop a population dynamics model for susceptible and resistant populations, including different management strategies and the effect of the average temperature increase of 2.5°C. High variability in response of Italian ryegrass populations to glyphosate was observed, with resistance index ranging from 1.37 to 5.5. In two populations (MR20AR and RN02AR), an increase in the number of copies of the EPSPs gene (11 to 57x) was detected. Regarding demography, under favourable conditions, seedlings have a rapid emergence (≈30 days), survival depends on plant cohorts (average 2 to 10%), seed production is strongly adjusted by plant density (90% with 50 pl m-2) in both populations. Resistant populations (13830 s pl-1) differed from the susceptible (20300 s pl-1) only in the seed production potential in low-density. The model based on the soil thermal accumulation proved efficient in describing the seedlings emergence, requiring 390 TT for the beginning of the emergence and 590 TT to reach 90% emergence. The population dynamics model showed that the seed bank of susceptible and resistant populations tends to stabilize at similar levels (≈20000 s m-2) and that the average temperature increase of 2.5°C resulted in an increase in the number of seeds present in the bank (≈25000 s m-2). Chemical management strategies and crop rotation with soybean/oat or corn/wheat demonstrated high efficiency and were able to suppress the Italian ryegrass seed bank by more than 75%. It is concluded that gene amplification is a mechanism involved in resistance of Italian ryegrass plants to glyphosate in South Region of Brazil. The predictive models developed in this thesis provide a better understanding of Italian ryegrass population development and the thermal model for emergence, could be used as a tool to assist in this species management.

Weed seeds may maintain their viability when passing through the digestive tract of cattle and can be therefore dispersed by animal movement or the application of manure. Whether different cattle types of the same species can cause differential weed seed fate is largely unknown to us particularly under non-grazed systems similar to Holstein-Friesian dairy farming. We investigated the effect on the seed survival of four weed species in the digestive tracts of four groups of Holstein cattle: lactating cows, feedlot male calves, dry cows and growing heifers. The weed species used were Cuscuta campestris, Polygonum aviculare, Rumex crispus and Sorghum halepense. Cattle excretion was sampled for recovery and viability of seeds at four 24 hourly intervals after seed intake. The highest seed recovery occurred two days after seed intake in all cattle groups. Averaged over weed species, dry and lactating cows had the lowest and highest seed recovery of 36.4% and 74.4% respectively. No significant differences were observed in seed recovery of the four weed species when their seeds were fed to dry cows. Based on a power model fitted to seed viability data, the estimated time to 50% viability loss after seed intake, over all cattle groups ranged from 65 h (R. crispus) to 76 h (P. aviculare). Recovered seeds from the dung of feedlot male calves showed the highest mortality among cattle groups. Significant correlation was found between seed viability and ruminal pH (r = 0.86; P

© 2017 Malmstrom et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Invasive weeds threaten the biodiversity and forage productivity of grasslands worldwide. However, management of these weeds is constrained by the practical difficulty of detecting small-scale infestations across large landscapes and by limits in understanding of landscape-scale invasion dynamics, including mechanisms that enable patches to expand, contract, or remain stable. While high-end hyperspectral remote sensing systems can effectively map vegetation cover, these systems are currently too costly and limited in availability for most land managers. We demonstrate application of a more accessible and cost-effective remote sensing approach, based on simple aerial imagery, for quantifying weed cover dynamics over time. In California annual grasslands, the target communities of interest include invasive weedy grasses (Aegilops triuncialis and Elymus caput-medusae) and desirable forage grass species (primarily Avena spp. and Bromus spp.). Detecting invasion of annual grasses into an annual-dominated community is particularly challenging, but we were able to consistently characterize these two communities based on their phenological differences in peak growth and senescence using maximum likelihood supervised classification of imagery acquired twice per year (in mid- and end-of season). This approach permitted us to map weed-dominated cover at a 1-m scale (correctly detecting 93% of weed patches across the landscape) and to evaluate weed cover change over time. We found that weed cover was more pervasive and persistent in management units that had no significant grazing for several years than in those that were grazed, whereas forage cover was more abundant and stable in the grazed units. This application demonstrates the power of this method for assessing fine-scale vegetation transitions across heterogeneous landscapes. It thus provides means for small-scale early detection of invasive species and for testing fundamental questions about landscape dynamics.

Cropping sequence diversification provides a systems approach to reduce yield variations and improve resilience to multiple environmental stresses. Yield advantages of more diverse crop rotations and their synergistic effects with reduced tillage are well documented, but few studies have quantified the impact of these management practices on yields and their stability when soil moisture is limiting or in excess. Using yield and weather data obtained from a 31-year long term rotation and tillage trial in Ontario, we tested whether crop rotation diversity is associated with greater yield stability when abnormal weather conditions occur. We used parametric and non-parametric approaches to quantify the impact of rotation diversity (monocrop, 2-crops, 3-crops without or with one or two legume cover crops) and tillage (conventional or reduced tillage) on yield probabilities and the benefits of crop diversity under different soil moisture and temperature scenarios. Although the magnitude of rotation benefits varied with crops, weather patterns and tillage, yield stability significantly increased when corn and soybean were integrated into more diverse rotations. Introducing small grains into short corn-soybean rotation was enough to provide substantial benefits on long-term soybean yields and their stability while the effects on corn were mostly associated with the temporal niche provided by small grains for underseeded red clover or alfalfa. Crop diversification strategies increased the probability of harnessing favorable growing conditions while decreasing the risk of crop failure. In hot and dry years, diversification of corn-soybean rotations and reduced tillage increased yield by 7% and 22% for corn and soybean respectively. Given the additional advantages associated with cropping system diversification, such a strategy provides a more comprehensive approach to lowering yield variability and improving the resilience of cropping systems to multiple environmental stresses. This could help to sustain future yield levels in challenging production environments.