Potential of herbicide reduction by automatic spot spraying in sugar beet with regard to weed control and biodiversity
Reducing pesticide use while maintaining crop productivity is one of the biggest challenges in modern agriculture. Spot spraying systems can achieve significant herbicide savings in weed control. This is true in particular for less competitive crops and with high herbicide treatment indices. In orde...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
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Julius Kühn-Institut
2022-02-01
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| Series: | Julius-Kühn-Archiv |
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| Online Access: | https://www.openagrar.de/receive/openagrar_mods_00077045 |
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| author | Dücker, Rebecka Radloff, Christoph Bänsch, Svenja Paulus, Stefan Streit, Sebastian |
| author_facet | Dücker, Rebecka Radloff, Christoph Bänsch, Svenja Paulus, Stefan Streit, Sebastian |
| author_sort | Dücker, Rebecka |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Reducing pesticide use while maintaining crop productivity is one of the biggest challenges in modern agriculture. Spot spraying systems can achieve significant herbicide savings in weed control. This is true in particular for less competitive crops and with high herbicide treatment indices. In order to test the savings potential under practical conditions in the field, the effectiveness of a spot spraying system (WeedSeeker 2, FarmFacts Germany) was evaluated in a one-year pilot project. The study included two intensity levels in comparison with standard site practice and an untreated control in a sugar beet experimental field with each four replicates. Therefore, the degree of weed coverage, the weed density and the number of weed species present were recorded before and after each of the three treatments by visual assessment. After the last application, the abundance and diversity of soil arthropods was additionally recorded. Finally, the herbicide savings potential at a given weed density, the control success and differences in abundance and diversity of the recorded species between the treatments were compared. Our results show that a considerable decrease in herbicide use is possible with the given technology, however, weed densities remained above the economic threshold for the most dominant weed, Chenopodium album L. Additionally, there was a trend of a higher abundance of soil arthropods, including carbides, in the untreated plots in comparison to the different herbicide treatments. However, the biodiversity indicated by the Shannon index was not reduced. Overall, the spot spraying treatment did not lead to an improvement of biodiversity parameters in comparison to the broadcast standard spraying method. Therefore, a continuous improvement of the application technique is required to ensure stable yields while at the same time reducing pesticide use. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T11:40:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-20f7990e5eed4831b5203126969e56c2 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1868-9892 2199-921X |
| language | deu |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T11:40:06Z |
| publishDate | 2022-02-01 |
| publisher | Julius Kühn-Institut |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Julius-Kühn-Archiv |
| spelling | doaj.art-20f7990e5eed4831b5203126969e56c22024-01-25T07:00:19ZdeuJulius Kühn-InstitutJulius-Kühn-Archiv1868-98922199-921X2022-02-01468606710.5073/20220117-072644Potential of herbicide reduction by automatic spot spraying in sugar beet with regard to weed control and biodiversityDücker, Rebecka0 Radloff, Christoph1 Bänsch, Svenja2 Paulus, Stefan3 Streit, Sebastian4Georg-August Universität Göttingen, Abteilung. Pflanzenpathologie und Pflanzenschutz, Göttingen, GermanyGeorg-August Universität Göttingen, Abteilung. Pflanzenpathologie und Pflanzenschutz, Göttingen, GermanyZentrum für Biodiversitätsmonitoring und Naturschutzforschung, Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig, Leibniz-Institut für Biodiversität der Tiere, Bonn, GermanyInstitut für Zuckerrübenforschung (IfZ), Göttingen, GermanyInstitut für Zuckerrübenforschung (IfZ), Göttingen, GermanyReducing pesticide use while maintaining crop productivity is one of the biggest challenges in modern agriculture. Spot spraying systems can achieve significant herbicide savings in weed control. This is true in particular for less competitive crops and with high herbicide treatment indices. In order to test the savings potential under practical conditions in the field, the effectiveness of a spot spraying system (WeedSeeker 2, FarmFacts Germany) was evaluated in a one-year pilot project. The study included two intensity levels in comparison with standard site practice and an untreated control in a sugar beet experimental field with each four replicates. Therefore, the degree of weed coverage, the weed density and the number of weed species present were recorded before and after each of the three treatments by visual assessment. After the last application, the abundance and diversity of soil arthropods was additionally recorded. Finally, the herbicide savings potential at a given weed density, the control success and differences in abundance and diversity of the recorded species between the treatments were compared. Our results show that a considerable decrease in herbicide use is possible with the given technology, however, weed densities remained above the economic threshold for the most dominant weed, Chenopodium album L. Additionally, there was a trend of a higher abundance of soil arthropods, including carbides, in the untreated plots in comparison to the different herbicide treatments. However, the biodiversity indicated by the Shannon index was not reduced. Overall, the spot spraying treatment did not lead to an improvement of biodiversity parameters in comparison to the broadcast standard spraying method. Therefore, a continuous improvement of the application technique is required to ensure stable yields while at the same time reducing pesticide use.https://www.openagrar.de/receive/openagrar_mods_00077045biodiversitycarabidaeherbicideprecision farmingsoil arthropodsweeds |
| spellingShingle | Dücker, Rebecka Radloff, Christoph Bänsch, Svenja Paulus, Stefan Streit, Sebastian Potential of herbicide reduction by automatic spot spraying in sugar beet with regard to weed control and biodiversity Julius-Kühn-Archiv biodiversity carabidae herbicide precision farming soil arthropods weeds |
| title | Potential of herbicide reduction by automatic spot spraying in sugar beet with regard to weed control and biodiversity |
| title_full | Potential of herbicide reduction by automatic spot spraying in sugar beet with regard to weed control and biodiversity |
| title_fullStr | Potential of herbicide reduction by automatic spot spraying in sugar beet with regard to weed control and biodiversity |
| title_full_unstemmed | Potential of herbicide reduction by automatic spot spraying in sugar beet with regard to weed control and biodiversity |
| title_short | Potential of herbicide reduction by automatic spot spraying in sugar beet with regard to weed control and biodiversity |
| title_sort | potential of herbicide reduction by automatic spot spraying in sugar beet with regard to weed control and biodiversity |
| topic | biodiversity carabidae herbicide precision farming soil arthropods weeds |
| url | https://www.openagrar.de/receive/openagrar_mods_00077045 |
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