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Diversifying crop rotations with temporary grasslands - Université de ...

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Fig. 4: Characterisation of common weed species according to their biodiversity value and potential <strong>crop</strong> yield<br />

loss.<br />

Competitive in<strong>de</strong>x<br />

(weed plants m -2 reducing wheat yield by 5%, log scale)<br />

1<br />

10<br />

100<br />

The value for biodiversity is estimated by the number of insect species associated to the weed species in the UK,<br />

the potential <strong>crop</strong> yield loss is estimated by the <strong>de</strong>nsity of weed plants per square meter reducing wheat yield by<br />

5%. The raw data of this figure were taken from publications of Marshall et al. (2003) and Storkey (2006). See<br />

Annexe 3 for weed species co<strong>de</strong>s.<br />

“bad”<br />

weeds<br />

AVEFA<br />

PAPRH<br />

ALOMY<br />

MYOAR<br />

GERDI<br />

VERPE<br />

FUMOF<br />

ANGAR<br />

VIOAR<br />

MATCH<br />

POLPE<br />

CAPBP<br />

LAMPU<br />

CERVU<br />

GALAP<br />

MATIN<br />

CHEAL<br />

SONOL<br />

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80<br />

Biodiversity value<br />

(number of insect species associated)<br />

Beyond this simple characterization of weed species based on these two criteria, Storkey<br />

(2006) used multivariate techniques to classify weed species into six ‘functional groups’<br />

according to several morphological, physiological and phenological plant traits. He i<strong>de</strong>ntified<br />

two groups of ‘beneficial’ weed species that combined a relatively low competitive ability<br />

<strong>with</strong> a high importance for invertebrates and birds.<br />

One strategy for reconciling farming and biodiversity would thus be to selectively suppress<br />

the most harmful weed species while conserving species that combine high ‘values’ for<br />

biodiversity and least threat for <strong>crop</strong> production. First of all, this approach would need to<br />

establish knowledge both about (i) the harmfulness of each weed species to <strong>crop</strong>s including<br />

13<br />

SINAR<br />

SENVU<br />

CIRAR<br />

POAAN<br />

POLAV<br />

“good”<br />

weeds<br />

STEME

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