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Invertebrate Seed Predators Reduce Weed Emergence Following SeedRain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Carmen K. Blubaugh and
Ian Kaplan
Carmen K. Blubaugh*
Affiliation:
Department of Entomology, Purdue University, 901 W. State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907
Ian Kaplan
Affiliation:
Department of Entomology, Purdue University, 901 W. State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907
*
Corresponding author's E-mail: carmen.blubaugh@wsu.edu
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Abstract

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Weeds are selected to produce overwhelming propagule pressure, and whilevertebrate and invertebrate seed predators destroy a large percentage ofseeds, their ecosystem services may not be sufficient to overcomegermination site limitations. Cover crops are suggested to facilitate seedpredation, but it is difficult to disentangle reductions in weed recruitmentattributable to granivores from those due to plant competition. Using commonlambsquarters as a focal weed species, we used experimental seed subsidiesand differential seed predator exclusion to evaluate the utility ofvertebrate and invertebrate seed predators in fallow, killed cover crop, andliving mulch systems. Over two growing seasons, we found that seed predatorswere responsible for a 38% reduction in seedling emergence and 81% reductionin weed biomass in fallow plots following simulated seed rain, suggestingthat granivory indeed overcomes safe-site limitation and suppresses weeds.However, the common lambsquarters densities in ambient seedbanks acrossfallow and cover crop treatments were high, and seed predators did notimpact their abundance. Across the study, we found either neutral ornegative effects of vertebrate seed predators on seed predation, suggestingthat invertebrate seed predators contribute most to common lamnsquartersregulation in our system. These results imply that weed seed biocontrol byinvertebrates can reduce propagule pressure initially following senescence,but other tools must be leveraged for long-term seedbank management.

Keywords

Common lambsquarters, Chenopodium album L. CHEALChenopodium albumcover cropsseed limitationweed seed predation

Information

Type
Weed Biology and Ecology
Information
Weed Science , Volume 64 , Issue 1 , March 2016, pp. 80 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © Weed Science Society of America 

Footnotes

Current address: Washington State University Department of Entomology, Pullman, WA 99164.

Associate Editor for this paper: Adam Davis, USDA-ARS

References

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