Novelty of plant functional approaches under weed-crop interactions particularly leaf functional traits of the wheat crop: A synthesis

Abstract

Plant functional traits integrate the ecological and evolutionary history of a species, and can potentially be used to predict its response as well as its influence on ecosystem functioning. Understanding its mechanistic role for community assembly can provide evidence to understand weed-crop interactions, and in particular, how weeds impact on crop production. In this article, we tried to explain the various traits specifically leaf functional traits (LFTs) used to know the level of competition between crop and weeds under the agro-ecosystem. To accomplish this, we synthesized the available information by carrying out a literature survey and standardized protocols from available databases showing the variation in the respective traits of crop and weeds. And, it is found that there are certain specific LFTs such as leaf area, leaf size and specific leaf area are helpful to calculate the level of competition under weed crop interactions. So, these traits proved to be a good tool to screen out species for productivity and ecological performance in the species interactions. This confirms with previous findings that knowledge to measure the LFTs can improve the yield in response to weed competition and can be implemented by the farmers in the field. Also, this array of traits can help to minimize the use of different chemicals (weedicides, herbicides and pesticides) in weeds management under agro-ecosystems which affect the biotic factors such as soil biota. However, more studies are required to explore the utility of these traits under weed-crop interactions in the agro-ecosystems.

Abhishek Kumar

Senior Research Fellow

My research interests include plant ecology, restoration ecology and soil ecology.