Storkey Jonathan, Westbury Duncan B
Plant and Invertebrate Ecology Division, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire AL5 2JQ, UK.
Pest Manag Sci. 2007 Jun;63(6):517-23. doi: 10.1002/ps.1375.
As a result of the recent intensification of crop production, the abundance and diversity of UK arable weeds adapted to cultivated land have declined, with an associated reduction in farmland birds. A number of questions need to be addressed when considering how these declines can be reversed. Firstly, can the delivery of crop production and biodiversity be reconciled by spatially separating cropping from designated wildlife areas? A number of subsidised environmental schemes in the UK take this approach and are focused on establishing vegetation cover on uncropped land. However, because of the lack of regular disturbance in these habitats, they are dominated by perennials and they therefore have limited potential for promoting the recovery of annual weed populations. A number of farmland bird species also rely on the provision of resources in field centres, and it is therefore likely that the recovery of their populations will rely on weed management options targeted at the cropped areas of the field. This raises two further questions. Firstly, is it possible to identify beneficial weed species that are relatively poor competitors with the crop and also have biodiversity value? Secondly, are the tools available to manage these species at acceptable levels while controlling pernicious weeds? A number of approaches are being employed to answer these questions, including predicting yield loss from weed competition models and exploiting herbicide selectivity. The further development of these tools is crucial if farmer opposition to managing weeds in crops is to be overcome.
由于近期作物产量的增加，英国适应耕地的可耕地杂草的数量和多样性有所下降，与之相关的是农田鸟类数量的减少。在考虑如何扭转这些下降趋势时，有一些问题需要解决。首先，通过将种植区域与指定的野生动物区域在空间上分隔开，能否使作物生产与生物多样性相协调？英国的一些补贴环境计划采用了这种方法，重点是在未耕种土地上建立植被覆盖。然而，由于这些栖息地缺乏定期干扰，它们以多年生植物为主，因此在促进一年生杂草种群恢复方面的潜力有限。一些农田鸟类物种也依赖田间中心提供的资源，因此它们种群的恢复可能依赖于针对田间种植区域的杂草管理方案。这又引发了另外两个问题。首先，是否有可能识别出与作物竞争相对较弱且具有生物多样性价值的有益杂草物种？其次，在控制有害杂草的同时，是否有可用的工具将这些物种控制在可接受的水平？人们正在采用多种方法来回答这些问题，包括通过杂草竞争模型预测产量损失以及利用除草剂的选择性。如果要克服农民对作物杂草管理的抵触情绪，这些工具的进一步发展至关重要。
