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Accepted manuscript

Influence of perennial forage communities on weed seed mortality and seed microbial associations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2026

Kara Eckert
Affiliation:
Department of Plant Science, Penn State University, University Park, PA, USA
Chris Stamplis
Affiliation:
Department of Plant Science, Penn State University, University Park, PA, USA
Jonathan Hur
Affiliation:
Department of Plant Science, Penn State University, University Park, PA, USA Department of Crop and Soil Science, North Carolina State University, Raliegh, NC, USA
Terrence Bell
Affiliation:
Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto – Scarborough, Toronto, ON, Canada
Estelle Couradeau
Affiliation:
Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, Penn State University, University Park, PA, USA; The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, Penn State University, University Park, PA, USA
Sharifa Crandall
Affiliation:
Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology, Penn State University, University Park, PA, USA
Eric Larson
Affiliation:
Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology, Penn State University, University Park, PA, USA
Carolyn J. Lowry*
Affiliation:
Department of Plant Science, Penn State University, University Park, PA, USA
*
Author for correspondence: Carolyn Lowry, Email: cvl5836@psu.edu
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Abstract

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Understanding how crop species or communities influence weed seed mortality could effectively build ecological weed management systems. Therefore, we examined whether perennial forage monocultures or mixtures can accelerate weed seed mortality and affect the microbial composition of seeds. We buried mesh bags containing weed seeds of either Powell amaranth (Amaranthus powellii S. Watson) or velvetleaf (Abutilon theophrasti Medick.) in perennial forage treatments consisting of monocultures and mixtures of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), forage chicory (Cichorium intybus L.), and orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.). Throughout a 2.5-year duration, we evaluated seed mortality of both weed species and used 16S rRNA and ITS amplicon sequencing to characterize A. powellii seed bacterial and fungal composition, respectively. We found limited effects of perennial forage treatment on A. theophrasti seed mortality, as the alfalfa-chicory biculture resulted in greater seed mortality compared to the orchardgrass monoculture. However, we found no other effects of perennial forage treatment on A. theophrasti or A. powellii seed mortality, nor did forage treatment affect the composition of bacteria or fungi associated with A. powellii seeds. We also found no effect of perennial forage richness on seed mortality of either weed species. Interestingly, soil cations (Ca, Mg, and K) tended to be negatively associated with weed seed mortality. Our research provided limited evidence that perennial forage communities can vary in their ability to accelerate weed seed mortality in the soil. However, we did uncover insights into microbial communities associated with weed seeds that could be promising for further research.

Information

Type
Research Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Weed Science Society of America