To be or not to be - common and endangered arable weed species in the face of Global Climate Change

Abstract

Arable weeds are one of the most endangered species groups in Europe. Modern agriculture and intensive land use management with the application of herbicides and fertilisers, enhanced seed cleaning, simplified crop rotations and abandonment of marginal arable sites are the main causes for the continuous decline of arable weeds. However, besides these changes in land use also global climate change may challenge the adaptability of arable weeds. Most scientists agree that the frequency of extreme meteorological conditions will increase in the future. As a consequence, plants of Central Europe will be subject to higher temperatures and reduced water supply due to longer intervals without precipitation during the growing season. We exposed seeds of five common and five endangered arable weed species to different temperatures and water potentials to study i) how this plant group responds to higher temperatures and lower moisture during germination in general and ii) whether there is a significant difference between common and endangered species in this respect.

Keywords

• adaptability
• arable weeds
• climate change
• germination
• temperature
• water availability