RT Journal Article
T1 Grain Quality as Influenced by the Structural Properties of Weed Communities in Mediterranean Wheat Crops
AB Weed community structure, including composition, taxonomic and functional diversity,may explain variability in crop quality, adding to the variability accounted by management, climaticand genetic factors. Focusing on Mediterranean rainfed wheat crops, we sampled weed communitiesfrom 26 fields in Spain that were either organically or conventionally managed. Weed communitieswere characterized by their abundance and taxonomic, compositional and trait-based measures.Grain protein concentration and the glutenin to gliadin ratio were used as indicators of wheat grainquality. Linear mixed effects models were used to analyze the relationship between crop qualityand weed community variables, while accounting for environmental factors. Nitrogen fertilization,previous crop and precipitation explained a large portion of the variation in wheat grain proteinconcentration (R2marginal = 0.39) and composition (R2marginal = 0.26). Weed community measures hadlimited effects on grain quality (increasing R2marginal of models by 1% on average). The weed effectswere related to the composition and the functional structure of their communities, but not to theirabundance. Environmental conditions promoting higher protein concentration were also selecting forweed species with competitive attributes, whereas the role of weed functional diversity depended onthe functional trait and on the resource limiting crop grain quality. Understanding the mechanisms ofweed effects on crop quality could aid on designing sustainable weed management practices.
PB MDPI
SN 2073-4395 (electrónico)
YR 2022
FD 2022
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10272/21998
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10272/21998
LA eng
NO This research was supported by grants AGL2012-33736 and AGL2015-64130-R funded byMCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF A way of making Europe”. D.J.G. was partiallysupported by the United States National Science Foundation (DUE 1758497 and DUE 1949969).
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 31 may 2026