The potential implication of changing beet rotations on the population dynamics of key weed species

摘要

Sugar beet remains an important crop in the UK. As well as providing farmers with a profit, it provides an important spring sown break in a landscape dominated by autumn sown crops. Recent significant changes have been made to the contractual agreement between growers and British Sugar as a result of reforms of the European Union sugar regime. These developments will lead to changes in where sugar beet is grown and to the rotations it is grown in. Changes in rotations will have profound but largely predictable effects on the weed communities of arable land where sugar beet is produced.