Publication Date
2021
Journal or Book Title
Environmental Research Letters
Abstract
Crops worldwide are simultaneously affected by weeds, which reduce yield, and by climate change, which can negatively or positively affect both crop and weed species. While the individual effects of environmental change and of weeds on crop yield have been assessed, the combined effects have not been broadly characterized. To explore the simultaneous impacts of weeds with changes in climate-related environmental conditions on future food production, we conducted a meta-analysis of 171 observations measuring the individual and combined effects of weeds and elevated CO2, drought or warming on 23 crop species. The combined effect of weeds and environmental change tended to be additive. On average, weeds reduced crop yield by 28%, a value that was not significantly different from the simultaneous effect of weeds and environmental change (27%), due to increased variability when acting together. The negative effect of weeds on crop yield was mitigated by elevated CO2 and warming, but added to the negative effect of drought. The impact of weeds with environmental change was also dependent on the photosynthetic pathway of the weed/crop pair and on crop identity. Native and non-native weeds had similarly negative effects on yield, with or without environmental change. Weed impact with environmental change was also independent of whether the crop was infested with a single or multiple weed species. Since weed impacts remain negative under environmental change, our results highlight the need to evaluate the efficacy of different weed management practices under climate change. Understanding that the effects of environmental change and weeds are, on average, additive brings us closer to developing useful forecasts of future crop performance.
ISSN
1748-9326
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abe14b
ORCID
Dukes, Jeffrey/0000-0001-9482-7743; Bradley, Bethany/0000-0003-4912-4971; Early, Regan/0000-0003-4108-5904; Beaury, Evelyn/0000-0002-7971-3593; Vila Planella, Montserrat/0000-0003-3171-8261; Ibanez, Ines/0000-0002-1054-0727; Blumenthal, Dana/0000-0001-7496-0766
Volume
16
Issue
3
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
License
UMass Amherst Open Access Policy
Funder
Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities [PCI2018-092939]; US National Science FoundationNational Science Foundation (NSF) [ICER-1852326]; University of Michigan Graham Sustainability Institute catalyst grant [U059627]
Recommended Citation
Vilà, Montserrat; Beaury, Evelyn M.; Blumenthal, Dana M.; Bradley, Bethany A.; Early, Regan; Laginhas, Brittany B.; Trillo, Alejandro; Dukes, Jeffery S.; Sorte, Cascade J. B.; and Ibáñez, Inés, "Understanding the Combined Impacts of Weeds and Climate Change on Crops" (2021). Environmental Research Letters. 458.
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abe14b