Farmland biodiversity is an important characteristic when assessing sustainability of agricultural practices and is of major international concern. Scientific data indicate that agricultural intensification and pesticide use are among the main drivers of biodiversity loss. The analysed data and experiences do not support statements that herbicide-resistant crops provide consistently better yiel...

BACKGROUND Barnyardgrass (Echinochloa crus-galli) is an important weed that is a menace to rice cultivation and production. Rapid evolution of herbicide resistance in this weed makes it one of the most difficult to manage using herbicides. Since genome-wide sequence data for barnyardgrass is limited, we sequenced the transcriptomes of susceptible and resistant barnyardgrass biotypes using the 4...

The herbicide terbuthylazine is widely used within the EU; however its frequent detection in surface and groundwater, together with its intrinsic toxicological properties, may pose a risk both for human and environmental health. Organic amendments have recently been proposed as a possible herbicide sorbent in soil, in order to limit herbicide movement from soil to water. The environmental fate ...

Herbicide rotations and mixtures are widely recommended to manage herbicide resistance. However, little research has quantified how these practices actually affect the selection of herbicide resistance in weeds. A 4-yr experiment was conducted in western Canada from 2004 to 2007 to examine the impact of herbicide rotation and mixture in selecting for acetolactate synthase (ALS) inhibitor resist...

Differences on response of mathematical models on herbicide leaching in the environment can occur due to the models and their limitations, mainly when using soil lysimeters. Tebuthiuron is a herbicide used in sugarcane crop and is applied in the recharge area of the Guarany aquifer in Brazil, one of the largest in the world. This study was conducted to compare the leaching potential of the herb...

Microorganisms decompose herbicides and they may serve as bioindicators of soil changes following herbicide application. Certain microbial species may be used as bioherbicides. This study has shown that Azotobacter is most sensitive to herbicide application; it is, therefore, a reliable indicator of the biological value of soil. The numbers of this group of nitrogen-fixing bacteria decrease con...

Pine voles (Microtus pinetorum) and meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) were studied in a commercial apple orchard in the Hudson Valley of New York during April and May 1981. Selected voles were given miniature radiotransmitters and then tracked before and after herbicide application. A total of eight pine and meadow voles were tracked throughout the experimental period. H0m.e range size dec...

Sorption of two herbicides, fluridone (FLUN) and norflurazon (NORO), by two types of biochars, whole sediment, and various soil/sediment organic matter (OM) fractions including nonhydrolyzable carbon (NHC), black carbon (BC) and humic acid (HA) was examined. The single-point organic carbon (OC)-normalized distribution coefficients (K(OC)) of FLUN and NORO at low solution concentration (C(e)=0.0...

Herbicide application incurs water contamination and thus effective herbicide detection methods are needed. In this research, a kinetic model was developed to describe the processes of herbicide diffusion into plant tissues and binding to the active sites. DCMU [3-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea], a commonly used herbicide, was used as a test chemical and its diffusion into plant leaves a...

Background: Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) contributes 75% of total pulse production. Being cheaper than animal protein, makes it important in dietary requirement of developing countries. Weed not only competes with chickpea resulting into drastic yield reduction but also creates problem of harboring fungi, bacterial diseases and insect pests. Chemical approach having new herbicide discovery has...