Crop rotation influence on vertical weed seed bank

Abstract

Soil weed seed bank represents a latent plant community, so, the knowledge of vertical distribution and number of seeds in soil profile is one of the reliable ways to prepare the adequate weed control strategy. It is believed that the crop rotation is one of the most important agrotechnical measures which, in interaction with weed control, impact both size and composition of the weed seed bank. In a long-term stationary experiment “Plodoredi” at the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, Novi Sad, Serbia (N 45° 19', E 19° 50') a weed seed bank in wheat monoculture, two year crop rotation (winter wheat – maize) and three year crop rotation (winter wheat – soybean – maize) has been estimated. Based on a three-year successive soil sampling in depth of 0–15, 15–30 and 30–40 cm and by applying the method of physical extraction of seed it has been established that in all three crop systems the seeds are distributed in the way that the layer of 0-15 cm had most seeds. The abundance decreased gradually with the increase in depth.