Invasive Alien Plants in Agroecosystems: Ecology, Surveillance, Impacts, Management and Challenges

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Farming Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 September 2024 | Viewed by 1882

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Laboratory of Weed Science, Benaki Phytopathological Institute, 6 Ekalis Str., 145-61 Athens, Greece
Interests: weed biology and ecology; seed biology (crops, weeds); weed management; herbicide resistance mechanisms

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Guest Editor
INIAV UEIS-SAFSV-Weed Science Laboratory, Quinta do Marques, 2780-185 Oeiras, Portugal
Interests: herbicide resistance; weed management; functional biodiversity

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

At both the regional and global scale, invasive alien plants (IAPs) in agroecosystems generate a noteworthy effect on plant taxonomic diversity, community dynamics, ecosystem processes and cropping sustainability and profitability. It is also well established that invasion dynamics are rapidly changing due to the escalation of various agroecosystem and human-induced disturbances (e.g. shifts in cropping systems, climate change, worldwide transport of biological commodities, overtourism, changes in land use pattern, etc). Within this framework, understanding the invasiveness of species and the invasibility of habitats provides insight into how weeds and invasive plants spread, an awareness which in turn facilitates the designing of programs to manage invasive plants/weeds, with the ultimate aim of securing cropping sustainability and profitability. Management of invasive weeds follows an internationally agreed hierarchical approach that encompasses the approaches of prevention, early detection, eradication and control. In the current Special Issue, we invite research articles, reviews and opinion articles linked to all the aforementioned aspects of IAPs in agroecosystems.

Dr. Demosthenis Chachalis
Dr. Isabel M Calha
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • weed management
  • invasive plants
  • biodiversity
  • impact effects
  • early detection and monitoring
  • invasion biology
  • crop production systems
  • climate and soil
  • new technologies
  • holoparasites

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

10 pages, 436 KiB  
Article
Allelopathic Potential and Chemical Composition of Essential Oil from the Invasive Plant Acmella radicans
by Kexin Yang, Yunhai Yang, Xiaohan Wu, Fengping Zheng, Gaofeng Xu, Shaosong Yang, Guimei Jin, David Roy Clements, Shicai Shen and Fudou Zhang
Agronomy 2024, 14(2), 342; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14020342 - 07 Feb 2024
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Abstract
Acmella radicans (Jacquin) R.K. Jansen is a new invasive species recorded in Yunnan Province, China, and little is known about its allelopathic potential and allelochemicals. In this study, the allelopathic effects of the essential oil (EO) of A. radicans on seed germination and [...] Read more.
Acmella radicans (Jacquin) R.K. Jansen is a new invasive species recorded in Yunnan Province, China, and little is known about its allelopathic potential and allelochemicals. In this study, the allelopathic effects of the essential oil (EO) of A. radicans on seed germination and seedling growth of four common plants, Brassica napus, Brassica rapa ssp. chinensis, Digitaria sanguinalis, and Lolium multiflorum, were explored. The results showed that the seed germination index, germination rate, root length, stem length, and biomass of B. napus and B. rapa ssp. chinensis were significantly inhibited at all EO concentrations of A. radicans, but there was a ‘low-promotion and high-inhibition effect’ on the root length of D. sanguinalis and L. multiflorum at low concentrations of 0.5 μL·mL−1 and 0.5–1.0 μL·mL−1, respectively. With increasing concentrations of EO, the inhibition rates of seed germination and seedling growth of four common plants gradually increased, and D. sanguinalis and L. multiflorum were the most inhibited, followed by B. rapa ssp. chinensis, and the least inhibited was B. napus. Thirty-two components were identified using GC–MS, representing 99.07% of the EO in A. radicans. The major components were 2-tridecanone (30.46%), caryophyllene oxide (19.18%), 4,8,11,11-tetramethylbicyclo[7.2.0]undec-3-en-5-ol (7.84%), β-caryophyllene (7.67%), and widdrol (4.7%). Among the compounds we identified, (E,E)-2,4-decadienal, 2-tridecanone, γ-cadinene, δ-cadinene, (E)-α-cadinol, spathulenol, caryophyllene oxide, and widdrol have been previously reported as having possible allelopathic effects. Our study was the first to show that A. radicans could potentially release allelochemicals to influence neighboring plants during its invasion and expansion. Full article
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18 pages, 24894 KiB  
Article
Reconstructing the Invasive History and Potential Distribution Prediction of Amaranthus palmeri in China
by Xinyu Jiao, Mei Long, Jiayi Li, Qingyu Yang and Zhixiong Liu
Agronomy 2023, 13(10), 2498; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13102498 - 28 Sep 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 812
Abstract
Palmer Amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri, Amaranthaceae) is one of the most competitive, troublesome, and noxious weeds causing significant yield reductions in various crops. A. palmeri was also a herbicide-resistant weed causing a serious eco-environmental problem. Given that the process of invasion is [...] Read more.
Palmer Amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri, Amaranthaceae) is one of the most competitive, troublesome, and noxious weeds causing significant yield reductions in various crops. A. palmeri was also a herbicide-resistant weed causing a serious eco-environmental problem. Given that the process of invasion is dynamic, the A. plamer invasion may already be quite severe where invasive species management and surveys are chronically lacking. Predicting the potential habitat of A. palmeri can help to develop effective measures for early warning and long-term detection. However, the invasive history and distribution patterns of A. palmeri in China remain largely unknown. Here, the invasive history and distribution patterns of A. palmeri from 1985 to 2022 in China were reconstructed, and then the potential geographical distribution of A. palmeri was predicted under current and future climate scenarios (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP5-8.5) using the optimal MaxEnt model (V 3.4.4) and ArcGIS 10.8.2. The mean AUC values of A. palmeri were 0.967. Under the current climate conditions, the suitable habitat areas for A. palmeri reached 1,067,000 km2 in China and were mainly distributed in north and central China. Under the future scenarios, the highly suitable habitats were mainly distributed in Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei. Under SSP2–4.5, the future suitable areas will reach the maximum and expand to 1,411,100 km2 in the 2060s. The centroid distribution would northwestward extend under future climate scenarios. The human footprint index, mean temperature of the warmest quarter (Bio_10), April wind speed (Wind_4), temperature seasonality (standard deviation × 100) (bio_4), topsoil gravel content (T_gravel), and precipitation of warmest quarter (Bio_18) were key environmental variables affecting distribution and growth of A. palmeri. Climate change would increase the risk of A. palmeri expanding to high latitudes. Our results will help in developing effective strategies for the early warning, prevention, control, and management of A. palmeri in China. Full article
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