Ecosystem services of agrobiodiversity - importance of weed seed predation as assessed by experimentation and modelling

Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Bärbel Gerowitt

Förderung: DAAD

Kooperation: Universitat de Lleida, Escola Técnica Superior d'Enginyeria Agraria (ETSEA), Dr Ir Paula R. Westerman

Zeitraum: 2008-2010

Einordung:
Institut: Professur Phytomedizin

Projektbeschreibung:
In the collaborative project it is intended to:
- quantify the effect of seed losses due to predation on weed population dynamics
- estimate the relative importance of landscape structures, such as field edges, and farming systems on the magnitude of seed predation.
Given the available competence and ongoing research efforts, both research goals can be achieved if field experiments conducted in the two environments are combined with models efforts.
Seed predation will be studied using a complementary set of new methods to increase our understanding of seed predation and to explore possibilities to manipulate and increase weed seed losses. The Spanish research groups will apply seeds directly to the ground and estimate the resulting losses by soil (surface) sampling and elutriation. The German research group will use remote time-lapse IR video recording. The purpose of both methods is to quantify the parameter seed predation as influenced by predator type and location. These values will be used as an additional factor into existing models for the population dynamics of weed. The models will be further developed for the purposes of this study.

Bearbeiter: M sc. agr. Daniel Daedlow

Zum Projekt: Mitarbeiter, Publikationen
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