Weeds are vital to the existence of farmland species, study finds

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www2.hull.ac.uk/news_and_events-1/news_archive/2011newsarchive/sept/weedsvitaltofarmlandspecies.aspx

Weeds are vital to the existence of farmland species, study finds

28 September 2011

Weeds, which are widely deemed as a nuisance plant, are vital to the existence of many farmland species according to a new University of Hull study published in the journal Biological Conservation today.

Since many weeds produce flowers and seed, they are an integral part of our ecosystem and together with other crop and non-crop seeds found on farms, they provide food for over 330 species of insects, birds and animals.

…

Dr Evans added: “We show that an increase in farm management intensity can lead to a decline of up to 19% in overall seed biomass and energy, which is presumably why agricultural intensification causes many farmland birds to suffer a ‘hunger-gap’ in mid-winter. Non-farmed habitats such as woodlands and hedgerows are important for seed resources, but we also show that some farmed areas are too”.

The team predicted that increased farming intensity can have large cascading effects throughout an entire ecosystem, which can indirectly affect animals associated with the seeds.

The scientists conclude that farmers can maintain or enhance biodiversity by appropriately managing uncultivated, semi-natural habitats such as hedgerows and woodlands but that even small changes to cropped areas, such as allowing some weed species to grow, could have a huge impact on the quantity and variety of seeds available on the farm and the animals that feed on them. They suggest that rather than focussing limited conservation resources on a small number of charismatic species such as birds, an alternative approach is to understand and manage the complex network of species interactions on farms and to explore ways of incorporating this into policy.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Round-Up pesticides are screwing up the crops in more ways than GM plants.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Round-Up pesticides are only useful because of “Roundup Ready” plants

i.e. The use of Roundup at all implies/requires GMO

http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/science_and_impacts/impacts_genetic_engineering/roundup-ready-soybeans.html

Roundup Ready Soybeans

Herbicide-tolerant crops are engineered to enable crops to withstand doses of herbicides that would otherwise kill them. These crops are generally developed by the manufacturers of the herbicide with the hope of increasing the sale of that herbicide. Roundup Ready™ crops, for example, are produced by the Monsanto company, the producer of the herbicide Roundup, a billion-dollar product that generates about 40 percent of the company's annual revenue. The projected planting of perhaps 12 million acres of Roundup Ready™ soybeans will substantially increase Monsanto's revenues as farmers switch from their current herbicide to Roundup.

What do these crops mean for the environment? The environmental benefit Monsanto claims for Roundup Ready™ soybeans is associated with the move away from popular herbicides like atrazine, whose active ingredients persist in the environment. Even granting that glyphosate is less toxic than atrazine and generally to be preferred to it, a switch from one herbicide to another does not result in an environmentally sound agriculture.

Glyphosate is highly toxic to plants and fish. Few who care about the environment welcome the annual dousing of 12 million acres of American farmland with such a chemical. In addition, many preparations of glyphosate are dissolved in so-called inert ingredients that can also be toxic. More fundamentally, it is highly unlikely that chemical companies that produce herbicide-tolerant plants will ever develop products that cut into their substantial herbicide revenues. Thus, to the extent that Roundup Ready™ products are environmentally beneficial, this is likely to be the limit of progress in that direction. The bottom line: US agriculture remains shackled to intensive chemical use.

Moreover, use of glyphosate-tolerant soybeans poses environmental risks. Herbicide-tolerant crops can transfer their tolerance trait to nearby related plants and weeds. While there are no such relatives in the United States, they do exist in other parts of the world, where the resulting glyphosate-resistant weeds will make weed control much more difficult. In the United States, the use of glyphosate on millions of acres will intensify the selection pressure for resistance in weeds unrelated to soybeans. As weeds become resistant, farmers will have to use more glyphosate, accelerating the downward spiral toward the loss of glyphosate as a weed-control tool. In addition, the glyphosate-tolerant plants could have effects on soil ecology that have not been assessed.

…

[tridim]

3. Squirrels and weeds, two of my favorite things that most people hate.

I think dandelions are beautiful.

Who the hell gets to classify a plant as a weed anyway?

[Booster]

6. I agree. I've always felt that anything that grows in my yard has

just as much right to be there as the "pretty" things. Unless things get out of hand, which they haven't, I let the plant have it's day in the sun and I don't kill it. Granted I don't have a beautiful yard but I really don't care. I also welcome squirrels and possums (they're the best at getting rid of snails, slugs, etc). I found 5 tiny baby possums in my garage and called animal control. They came out and rounded them up. I asked what they would do with them and the guy said "oh, we'll kill them". I said never mind then and told the guy to leave them with me. I actually found a "possum lady" on the internet who lived 3 blks from my house and she was delighted to take them. When I took them to her she gave me a lot of information on possums and what a great job they do in getting rid of unwanted things in the yard. Granted they are ugly and intimidating, but if you can get over how they look they really are good little animals.

[stuntcat]

8. "good little animals"!

aw, I love possums!!

[Booster]

11. Me too. Those babies were the cutest little things with great big

eyes that just seemed to be saying "please don't hurt me". Of course any babies, with the exception of birds, are just too cute.

[pansypoo53219]

7. dandelions are there for bees. early bee food.

i no longer dig them out. yes, they are pretty.

[stuntcat]

10. yay squirrels

squirrels 4-EVAH :loveya:

I have big flower beds so some weeds I have to pull up, I'm kinda slack about it though. The only weeds that really bother me are crabgrass and goosegrass. I read that the seeds from goosegrass are edible though, if we run completely out of food I'll keep this in mind.

[OKIsItJustMe]

12. The way I learned it from my Mother was

“A weed is a plant that grows where you didn’t want it to.”

So, for example, some people consider "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily_of_the_Valley">Lily of the Valley" a weed, at our house, consider it “ground cover.”

We also like dandelions.

We have an in-house dispute regarding “thistles,” they actually are rather pretty, and the little birds & butterflies love ’em… it’s just I have a bias against “prickers!”

[Booster]

13. Wow, the Lily of the Valley is beautiful. Your Mother was a very

wise lady who knew this wonderful plant wasn't a weed at all but something very pleasant to look at. I agree with you about "prickers". I have roses and every time I fiddle with them I come in the house bleeding all over the place. Your Lily is just as pretty as my roses. And I also find dandelions fascinating.

[Odin2005]

16. Unfortunately dandelions are an invasive species, they are native to Europe, not North America.

Wild Violets, now there is a pretty weed!

[JoeyT]

4. Weeds aren't that big of a problem and never really were.

Invasive weeds are. And we did that to ourselves.

There's a big difference between a few dandelions, clover, or blue stems and having a field full of thorny pigweed* or kudzu.
The first three will exist alongside crops. The last two will either outcompete and kill them or make them impossible to harvest.
Pigweed is also becoming highly resistant or immune to roundup, thanks to overuse.

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. God knows I try to do my part for the human race.

[Gregorian]

9. I've always thought this was the case. I never had proof,, until now.

I get so mad at people who just blindly go around killing weeds. The funny part of it is, they always talk about how prolific weeds are. They just sprout up over night. You kill one and ten more pop up. Well, maybe there's a reason for that. Like survival of the biosphere.

[eridani]

14. An old botany professor's definition of "weed"

A plant growing where someone doesn't want it to grow.

[Odin2005]

15. This is only news to the ecologically ignorant.

Most of our crops started out as annual "weeds" themselves. According to a book I'm reading, agriculture is pretty much people maintaining disturbed conditions congenial for the "weeds" we eat.

The book mentioned, "The Ecology of Eden", describes civilization as a symbiosis between humans and annual weeds.