Weed infestation of a cereal-legume mixture depending on its concentration and position in a crop rotation

Abstract

A field study was carried out in the period 2000-2006 at the Experimental Station in Tomaszkowo belonging to the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn. Its aim was to compare weed infestation of a mixture of spring barley and field pea grown in a four crop rotation with different crop selection and sequence. Each year during tillering of spring barley and before the harvest of the mixture, weed species composition and density were evaluated, while additionally weed biomass was also estimated before the harvest. These results were used to determine species constancy, Simpson’s dominance index, the Shannon-Wiener diversity and evenness indices as well as the community similarity index based on floristic richness, numbers and biomass of particular weed species. The cropping frequency and the position of the mixture in the crop rotation did not differentiate the species composition and total biomass of weed communities in the cereal-legume mixture crops. The crop rotation in which the mixture constituted 50% and was grown after itself had a reducing effect on weed numbers. Growing field pea in the 4-year crop rotation promoted weed infestation of the mixture and the dominance of weed communities. Capsella bursa-pastoris, Chenopodium album, Echinochloa crus-galli, Elymus repens, Polygonum convolvulus, and Sonchus arvensis were constant components of the agrophytocenoses. The weed communities were more similar in terms of their floristic composition than in terms of weed density and air-dry weight of weeds.