Weeds and climate change (journal)

Impact of climate change on weeds in agriculture: a review

Climate change has induced transformations in the weed flora of arable ecosystems in Europe. The authors review the mechanisms of responses of arable weeds to climate change. Climate change effects are categorized into three distinct types of shifts: (1) range shifts at the landscape scale, (2) niche shifts at the community scale, and (3) trait shifts of individual species at the population scale. The main conclusions are changes in the species composition and new species introductions are favored, with major ecological and agronomical implications. Current research mainly considers processes at the landscape scale, but processes at the population and community scales have prevalent importance to devise sustainable management strategies.