Abstract
Socio-economic factors often determine the extent to which different global regions have been invaded by non-native plant species, yet few studies examine whether such variables are similarly important for native species richness. In contrast to previous studies that have assembled regional floras for comparison, we examine global patterns of non-native and native plant species richness within a single, globally distributed ecosystem: cultivated wheat fields. Native species richness increased with the historic length of wheat cultivation, total wheat harvested area and arable land area in a country. In contrast, non-native weed species richness declined with increasing length of wheat cultivation, higher fertilizer inputs, and lower absolute latitude. The low percentage of native species in countries with a short history of wheat cultivation suggests that the invasion of crop fields by native plants takes longer than the migration of non-native weed species pre-adapted to crop fields in other parts of the world. Seed contaminants in grain imports are probably one of the main sources of non-native weeds, especially for regions with more recent wheat cultivation histories. To date there has been a tendency for research on agricultural weeds to be dissociated from that of plant invasions, yet we show how cultivation history has shaped the weed flora and why non-native weeds are perceived as such a problem in New World agriculture, as well as confirming at a global scale the role of crop husbandry and agricultural extent on weed floras.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Change history
24 September 2021
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-021-02632-2
References
Anderson RRL, Tanaka DDL, Black AL, Schweizer EEE (1998) Weed community and species response to crop rotation, tillage, and nitrogen fertility. Weed Technol 12:531–536
Baessler C, Klotz S (2006) Effects of changes in agricultural land-use on landscape structure and arable weed vegetation over the last 50 years. Agric Ecosyst Environ 115:43–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2005.12.007
Banks PA, Santelmann PW, Tucker BB (1976) Influence of long-term soil fertility treatments on weed species in winter-wheat. Agron J 68:825–827
Barrett SH (1983) Crop mimicry in weeds. Econ Bot 37:255–282. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02858881
Behrens MR, Mutlu N, Chakraborty S et al (2007) Dicamba resistance: enlarging and preserving biotechnology-based weed management strategies. Science 316:1185–1188
Bell GDH (1987) The history of wheat cultivation. Wheat breeding. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 31–49
Bellwood P, Gamble C, Le Blanc SA et al (2007) First farmers: the origins of agricultural societies. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford
Bonjean AP, Angus WJ (2001) The world wheat book: a history of wheat breeding. Lavoisier Publishing, Paris
Brummer TJ, Byrom AE, Sullivan JJ, Hulme PE (2016) Alien and native plant richness and abundance respond to different environmental drivers across multiple gravel floodplain ecosystems. Divers Distrib 22:823–835. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12448
Carver BF (2009) Wheat science and trade. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford
Celesti Grapow L, Alessandrini A, Arrigoni PV et al (2009) Inventory of the non native flora of Italy. Plant Biosyst 143:386–430. https://doi.org/10.1080/11263500902722824
Chen H, Qian H, Spyreas G, Crossland M (2010) Biodiverstiy research: native-exotic species richness relationships across spatial scales and biotic homogenization in wetland plant communities of Illinois, USA. Divers Distrib 16:737–743. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1472-4642.2010.00679.x
Cirujeda A, Aibar J, Zaragoza C (2011) Remarkable changes of weed species in Spanish cereal fields from 1976 to 2007. Agron Sustain Dev 31:675–688. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-011-0030-4
Cornell HV, Harrison SP (2014) What are species pools and when are they important? Annu Rev Ecol Evol Syst 45:45–67. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-120213-091759
Daehler CC (1998) The taxonomic distribution of invasive angiosperm plants: ecological insights and comparison to agricultural weeds. Biol Conserv 84:167–180. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0006-3207(97)00096-7
Dawson W, Moser D, van Kleunen M et al (2017) Global hotspots and correlates of alien species richness across taxonomic groups (in review after resubmission). Nat Ecol Evol 1:1–7. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0186
Derksen DA, Lafond GP, Thomas AG et al (1993) Impact of agronomic practices on weed communities—tillage systems. Weed Sci 41:409–417
Derksen DA, Thomas AG, Lafond GP et al (2006) Impact of post-emergence herbicides on weed community diversity within conservation-tillage systems. Weed Res 35:311–320. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-3180.1995.tb01794.x
Elith J, Leathwick JR, Hastie T (2008) A working guide to boosted regression trees. J Anim Ecol 77:802–813. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2656.2008.01390.x
Feige I (2007) Transport, trade and economic growth—coupled or decoupled?. Springer, Berlin
Feldman M, Kislev ME (2015) Domestication of emmer wheat and evolution of free-threshing tetraploid wheat. Isr J Plant Sci 55:207–221. https://doi.org/10.1560/IJPS.55.3-4.207
Healy AJ (1952) The introduction and spread of weeds. Proc N Z Weed Control Conf 5:5–16
Holm LG, Plucknett DL, Pancho JV, Herberger JP (1977) Lolium temulentum L. In: Holm LG, Plucknett DL, Pancho JV, Herberger JP (eds) The worlds worst weeds, distribution and biology. University Press of Hawaii, Honolulu, pp 62–71
Holzner W, Numata M (1984) Biology and ecology of weeds. Springer, The Hague
Hulme PE (2009) Trade, transport and trouble: managing invasive species pathways in an era of globalization. J Appl Ecol 46:10–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2008.01600.x
Hulme PE (2011) Addressing the threat to biodiversity from botanic gardens. Trends Ecol Evol 26:168–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2011.01.005
Hyvönen T, Salonen J (2002) Weed species diversity and community composition in cropping practices at two intensity levels—a six-year experiment. Plant Ecol 159:73–81. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015580722191
Inderjit S (2005) Invasive plants: ecological and agricultural aspects. Birkhäuser-Verlag, Basel
Jang S, Marjanovic J, Gornicki P (2013) Resistance to herbicides caused by single amino acid mutations in acetyl-CoA carboxylase in resistant populations of grassy weeds. New Phytol 197:1110–1116. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.12117
Jauni M, Hyvönen T (2012) Positive diversity–invasibility relationships across multiple scales in Finnish agricultural habitats. Biol Invasions 14:1379–1391. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-011-0163-z
Joernsgard B, Rasmussen K, Hill J, Christiansen JL (1996) Influence of nitrogen on competition between cereals and their natural weed populations. Weed Res 36:461–470. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-3180.1996.tb01675.x
José-María L, Armengot L, Blanco-Moreno JM et al (2010) Effects of agricultural intensification on plant diversity in Mediterranean dryland cereal fields. J Appl Ecol 47:832–840. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2010.01822.x
Kueffer C, Daehler CC, Torres-Santana CW et al (2010) A global comparison of plant invasions on oceanic islands. Perspect Plant Ecol Evol Syst 12:145–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ppees.2009.06.002
Kuester A, Conner JK, Culley T, Baucom RS (2014) How weeds emerge: a taxonomic and trait-based examination using United States data. New Phytol 202:1055–1068. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.12698
Kuhn M (2008) Caret package. J Stat Softw 28:1–26
Kühn I, Klotz S (2002) Floristischer Status und gebietsfremde Arten. In: Klotz S, Kühn I, Durka W (eds) BIOLFLOR—Eine Datenbank zu biologisch-ökologischen Merkmalen der Gefäßpflanzen in Deutschland. Bundesamt für Naturschutz, Bonn, pp 47–56
Kurokawa S (2001) Invasion of exotic weed seeds into Japan, mixed in imported feed grains. Ext Bull Food Fertil Technol Cent 497:1–14
Légère A, Stevenson FC, Ziadi N (2008) Contrasting responses of weed communities and crops to 12 years of tillage and fertilization treatments. Weed Technol 22:309–317. https://doi.org/10.1614/WT-07-124.1
Liaw A, Wiener M (2002) Classification and regression by randomForest. R News 2:18–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/154405910408300516
Lonsdale WM (1999) Global patterns of plant invasions and the concept of invasibility. Ecology 80:1522–1536. https://doi.org/10.1890/0012-9658(1999)080%5b1522:GPOPIA%5d2.0.CO;2
Lososová Z, Chytrý M, Cimalová S et al (2004) Weed vegetation of arable land in Central Europe: gradients of diversity and species composition. J Veg Sci 15:415–422. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1654-1103.2004.tb02279.x
Lyon DJ, Blackshaw RE, Gill GS (2009) Cutting down on weeds to cut a cleaner wheat crop. In: Carver BF (ed) Wheat science and trade. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, pp 251–272
Mack RN, Erneberg M (2002) The United States naturalized flora: largely the product of deliberate introductions. Ann Mo Bot Gard 89:176–189. https://doi.org/10.2307/3298562
Maekawa F (1943) Prehistoric-naturalized plants to Japan proper. Acta Phytotaxon Geobot 13:274–279
Marchildon GP (2013) War, revolution, and the Great Depression in the global wheat trade, 1917–1939. In: Coppolaro L, McKenzi F (eds) A global history of trade and conflict since 1500. Palgrave Macmillan, London, pp 142–162
Marini L, Battisti A, Bona E et al (2012) Alien and native plant life-forms respond differently to human and climate pressures. Glob Ecol Biogeogr 21:534–544. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1466-8238.2011.00702.x
Neve P, Vila-Aiub M, Roux F (2009) Evolutionary-thinking in agricultural weed management. New Phytol 184:783–793. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2009.03034.x
Oerke EC (2006) Crop losses to pests. J Agric Sci 144:31–43. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021859605005708
Parry ML, Rosenzweig C, Iglesias A et al (2004) Effects of climate change on global food production under SRES emissions and socio-economic scenarios. Glob Environ Change 14:53–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2003.10.008
Pautasso M, McKinney ML (2007) The botanist effect revisited: plant species richness, county area, and human population size in the United States. Conserv Biol 21:1333–1340. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2007.00760.x
Potts GR, Ewald JA, Aebischer NJ (2010) Long-term changes in the flora of the cereal ecosystem on the Sussex Downs, England, focusing on the years 1968–2005. J Appl Ecol 47:215–226. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2009.01742.x
Preston CD, Pearman DA, Hall AR (2004) Archaeophytes in Britain. Bot J Linn Soc 145:257–294. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8339.2004.00284.x
Pyšek P, Richardson DM (2006) The biogeography of naturalization in alien plants. J Biogeogr 33:2040–2050. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2006.01578.x
Pysek P, Jarosík V, Hulme PE et al (2010) Disentangling the role of environmental and human pressures on biological invasions across Europe. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 107:12157–12162. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1002314107
Pyšek P, Richardson DM, Pergl J et al (2008) Geographical and taxonomic biases in invasion ecology. Trends Ecol Evol 23:237–244. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2008.02.002
Pyšek P, Danihelka J, Sádlo J et al (2012) Catalogue of alien plants of the Czech Republic (2nd edition): checklist update, taxonomic diversity and invasion patterns. Preslia 84:155–255
R Core Team (2018) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. www.R-project.org
Radosevich S, Holt J, Ghersa C (2007) Ecology of weeds and invasive plants: relationship to agriculture and natural resource management. Wiley, Hoboken
Rassam G, Latifi N, Soltani A, Kamkar B (2011) Impact of crop management on weed species diversity and community composition of winter wheat fields in Iran. Weed Biol Manag 11:83–90. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1445-6664.2011.00407.x
Raven PH (1973) The evolution of mediterranean floras. Springer, Berlin, pp 213–224
Rejmánek M, Richardson DM, Higgins SI et al (2005) Ecology of invasive plants: state of the art. In: Mooney HA, Mack RN, McNeely JA et al (eds) Invasive alien species: a new synthesis. Island Press, Washington
Santín-Montanyá MI, Martín-Lammerding D, Walter I et al (2013) Effects of tillage, crop systems and fertilization on weed abundance and diversity in 4-year dry land winter wheat. Eur J Agron 48:43–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2013.02.006
Seto KC, Fragkias M, Güneralp B, Reilly MK (2011) A meta-analysis of global urban land expansion. PLoS ONE 6:e23777. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0023777
Shewry PR (2009) Wheat. J Exp Bot 60:1537–1553. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erp058
Shimono Y, Konuma A (2008) Effects of human-mediated processes on weed species composition in internationally traded grain commodities. Weed Res 48:10–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-3180.2008.00605.x
Snir A, Nadel D, Groman-Yaroslavski I et al (2015) The origin of cultivation and proto-weeds, long before Neolithic farming. PLoS ONE 10:e0131422. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0131422
Stepien E (2008) The characteristic of the archaeophytes appearing in the area of the Cedynski Landscape Park (NW Poland). Distribution, habitat conditions, the degree of naturalization and present threats. Nat Montenegrina 7:309–323
Stohlgren TJ, Barnett DT, Kartesz JT (2003) The rich get richer: patterns of plant invasions in the United States. Front Ecol Environ 1:11–14. https://doi.org/10.1890/1540-9295(2003)001%5b0011:TRGRPO%5d2.0.CO;2
Swanton CJ, Shrestha A, Roy RC et al (1999) Effect of tillage systems, N, and cover crop on the composition of weed flora. Weed Sci 47:454–461
Sweeney AE, Renner KA, Laboski C, Davis A (2008) Effect of fertilizer nitrogen on weed emergence and growth. Weed Sci 56:714–721. https://doi.org/10.1614/WS-07-096.1
Terpó A, Zajac M, Zajac A (1999) Provisional list of Hungarian archaeophytes. Thaiszia J Bot 9:41–47
Tomasetto F, Duncan RP, Hulme PE (2013) Environmental gradients shift the direction of the relationship between native and alien plant species richness. Divers Distrib 19:49–59. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1472-4642.2012.00939.x
Turcotte MM, Araki H, Karp DS et al (2016) The eco-evolutionary impacts of domestication and agricultural practices on wild species. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 372:20160033
Vigueira CC, Olsen KM, Caicedo AL (2012) The red queen in the corn: agricultural weeds as models of rapid adaptive evolution. Heredity (Edinb) 110:1–9. https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.2012.104
Vilà M, Pujadas J (2001) Land-use and socio-economic correlates of plant invasions in European and North African countries. Biol Conserv 100:397–401. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0006-3207(01)00047-7
Williamson M, Stout JC, Dehnen-Schmutz K et al (2008) A provisional list of Irish archaeophytes. Irish Nat J 29:30–35
Willig M, Kaufman D, Stevens R (2003) Latitudinal gradients of biodiversity: pattern, process, scale, and synthesis. Annu Rev Ecol Evol Syst 34:273–309. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.34.012103.144032
Wilson CE, Castro KL, Thurston GB, Sissons A (2016) Pathway risk analysis of weed seeds in imported grain: a Canadian perspective. NeoBiota 30:49–74. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.30.7502
Acknowledgements
We thank the GRIN (http://www.ars-grin.gov/), Euro+Med (http://www.emplantbase.org/), eFlora (http://www.efloras.org/) and other online flora databases for use of the data. The research was supported through the New Zealand Tertiary Education Commission via its funding of the Bio-Protection Research Centre of Research Excellence, Lincoln University, New Zealand.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
MI, RD and PH planned and designed the research. MI and EW conducted literature survey and built databases, MI, RD and PH analysed data, MI, EW, RD and PH wrote the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Additional information
The original online version of this article was revised due to the wrong Supplementary file was originally published with this article; it has now been replaced with the correct file.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ikegami, M., Wandrag, E., Duncan, R.P. et al. Length of cultivation determines native and non-native weed richness in crop fields worldwide. Biol Invasions 21, 363–375 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-018-1828-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-018-1828-7