Phenology and Diversity of Weeds in the Agriculture and Horticulture Cropping Systems of Indian Western Himalayas: Understanding Implications for Agro-Ecosystems

Shiekh Marifatul Haq; Fayaz A Lone; Manoj Kumar; Eduardo Soares Calixto; Muhammad Waheed; Ryan Casini; Eman A Mahmoud; Hosam O Elansary

doi:10.3390/plants12061222

Phenology and Diversity of Weeds in the Agriculture and Horticulture Cropping Systems of Indian Western Himalayas: Understanding Implications for Agro-Ecosystems

Plants (Basel). 2023 Mar 8;12(6):1222. doi: 10.3390/plants12061222.

Authors

Shiekh Marifatul Haq¹, Fayaz A Lone², Manoj Kumar³, Eduardo Soares Calixto⁴, Muhammad Waheed⁵, Ryan Casini⁶, Eman A Mahmoud⁷, Hosam O Elansary⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ethnobotany, Institute of Botany, Ilia State University, Tbilisi 0162, Georgia.
² Department of Botany, Government Degree College (Women), Kupwara 193222, India.
³ GIS Centre, Forest Research Institute (FRI), PO New Forest, Dehradun 248006, India.
⁴ Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32962, USA.
⁵ Department of Botany, University of Okara, Okara 56300, Pakistan.
⁶ School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, 2121 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA.
⁷ Department of Food Industries, Faculty of Agriculture, Damietta University, Damietta 34511, Egypt.
⁸ Department of Plant Production, College of Food & Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Weeds are a major threat to agriculture and horticulture cropping systems that reduce yield. Weeds have a better ability to compete for resources compared to the main crops of various agro-ecosystems and act as a major impediment in reducing overall yield. They often act as energy drains in the managed agroecosystems. We studied weed infestation for five different agro-ecosystems in the part of Indian Western Himalayas represented by paddy, maize, mustard, apple and vegetable orchards. Systematic random sampling was done to record flowering phenology and diversity of weeds during the assessment period 2015-2020. We recorded 59 weed species, taxonomically distributed among 50 genera in 24 families. The Asteraceae family has the most species (15% species), followed by Poaceae (14% species), and Brassicaceae (12% species). The Therophytes were the dominant life form followed by Hemicryptophytes. The majority of the weeds were shown to be at their most blooming in the summer (predominantly from June to July). The Shannon index based diversity of weeds ranged from 2.307-3.325 for the different agro-ecosystems. The highest number of weeds was in the horticulture systems (apple > vegetable) followed by agriculture fields (maize > paddy > mustard). Agriculture and horticulture cropping systems were distinguished using indicator species analysis, which was supported by high and significant indicator values for a number of species. Persicaria hydropiper, Cynodon dactylon, Poa annua, Stellaria media, and Rorippa palustris had the highest indicator value in agriculture cropping systems, while Trifolium repens, Phleum pratense, and Trifolium pratense had the highest indicator value in horticulture cropping systems. We found that eleven weed species were unique to apple gardens followed by nine in maize, four in vegetables, two in mustard and one in paddy fields. Spatial turnover (βsim) and nestedness-resultant components (βsne) of species dissimilarity revealed dissimilarity lower than 50% among the five cropping systems. The study is expected to assist in formulating an appropriate management strategy for the control of weed infestation in the study region.

Keywords: agriculture; beta diversity; indicator species analysis; weed management; weed survey.

Grants and funding

Researchers Supporting Project (RSP2023R118)/King Saud University