Abstract
Weed management is one of the main challenges of conservation agriculture. Although all three components of conservation agriculture (minimal tillage, permanent soil cover and crop diversification) can reduce weed populations, these effects may only become apparent in the medium to long term. This study evaluated weed biomass, density and diversity with and without herbicide control in a long-term trial initiated in 1991 in the Mexican Highlands to evaluate all three components of conservation agriculture. Data were collected in 2004, 2005, 2013, 2014 and 2015. Weed density and biomass were generally lower in conservation agriculture than with conventional tillage. The three components of conservation agriculture significantly reduced weed biomass, which was lower when all three components were applied together. When herbicides were applied, weed biomass in conservation agriculture was 91% lower in maize and 81% lower in wheat than in conventional tillage. Different treatments favored different weed species, but no trend toward increased perennial weeds was observed in conservation agriculture. These data supported claims stating that if adequate weed control is achieved in the initial years, weed populations in conservation agriculture systems are lower than in conventional tillage systems.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record; open copy licensed cc-by. Read at the source ↗
The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 9
Claim · model-written summary
Weed density was generally lower under conservation agriculture than conventional tillage.
- Treatment
- conservation agriculturee0
- Interactor
- Weede0weed
- Outcome
- Weed densitye0
- Direction
- lowere0
- Comparator
- conventional tillagee0
Zea maysOrganisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Weed density and biomass were generally lower in conservation agriculture than with conventional tillage”
e1“When herbicides were applied, weed biomass in conservation agriculture was 91% lower in maize and 81% lower in wheat than in conventional tillage”
Claim · model-written summary
Weed biomass was generally lower under conservation agriculture.
- Treatment
- conservation agriculturee0
- Interactor
- Weede0weed
- Outcome
- Weed density and biomasse0
- Direction
- lowere0
- Comparator
- conventional tillagee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Weed density and biomass were generally lower in conservation agriculture than with conventional tillage”
e1“When herbicides were applied, weed biomass in conservation agriculture was 91% lower in maize and 81% lower in wheat than in conventional tillage”
Claim · model-written summary
All three conservation agriculture components significantly reduced weed biomass.
- Treatment
- three components of conservation agriculturee0
- Interactor
- weede0weed
- Outcome
- weed biomasse0
- Direction
- reducede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The three components of conservation agriculture significantly reduced weed biomass”
e1“When herbicides were applied, weed biomass in conservation agriculture was 91% lower in maize and 81% lower in wheat than in conventional tillage”
Claim · model-written summary
Applying all three components together gave lower weed biomass.
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“which was lower when all three components were applied together”
e1“When herbicides were applied, weed biomass in conservation agriculture was 91% lower in maize and 81% lower in wheat than in conventional tillage”
Claim · model-written summary
With herbicide, conservation agriculture reduced maize weed biomass by 91% versus conventional tillage.
- Treatment
- conservation agriculturee0
- Interactor
- weede0weed
- Outcome
- weed biomasse0
- Direction
- lowere0
- Value
- 91%e0
- Comparator
- conventional tillagee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“When herbicides were applied, weed biomass in conservation agriculture was 91% lower in maize and 81% lower in wheat than in conventional tillage”
Claim · model-written summary
With herbicide, conservation agriculture reduced wheat weed biomass by 81% versus conventional tillage.
- Taxon
- wheat
Triticum aestivume0 - Treatment
- conservation agriculturee0
- Interactor
- weede0weed
- Outcome
- weed biomasse0
- Direction
- lowere0
- Value
- 81%e0
- Comparator
- conventional tillagee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“When herbicides were applied, weed biomass in conservation agriculture was 91% lower in maize and 81% lower in wheat than in conventional tillage”
Claim · model-written summary
Treatments favored different weed species.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Different treatments favored different weed species”
e1“When herbicides were applied, weed biomass in conservation agriculture was 91% lower in maize and 81% lower in wheat than in conventional tillage”
Claim · model-written summary
No trend toward increased perennial weeds was observed in conservation agriculture.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“no trend toward increased perennial weeds was observed in conservation agriculture”
e1“When herbicides were applied, weed biomass in conservation agriculture was 91% lower in maize and 81% lower in wheat than in conventional tillage”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors conclude that initial weed control leads to lower long-term weed populations under conservation agriculture.
- Outcome
- adequate weed controle0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“if adequate weed control is achieved in the initial years, weed populations in conservation agriculture systems are lower than in conventional tillage systems”
e1“When herbicides were applied, weed biomass in conservation agriculture was 91% lower in maize and 81% lower in wheat than in conventional tillage”
The same questions in other papers
tillage · weed · Triticum aestivum (wheat)Results differ
125 papers in the same direction as this paper · 56 in the opposite direction · 1 reporting no difference from an alternative
- positive
- negative
- negative
179 papers more in this group
See all 183 papers →tillage · weed · Zea mays (maize)Positive and negative results
64 papers in the same direction as this paper · 41 in the opposite direction · 5 reporting no difference from an alternative
- negative
- negative
- positive
107 papers more in this group
See all 111 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.