'Raising the bar': improving the standard and utility of weed and invasive plant research

摘要

Weedy and invasive plants currently cause globally significant environmental and economic impacts in agricultural and natural ecosystems (e.g. Pimentel et aL, 2005). The extent and impact of invasive plants will become increasingly variable with climate change, while the evolution of herbicide resistance is increasingly thwarting current agricultural weed management approaches. In short, weedy and invasive plants need to be a major consideration in efforts to enhance global food security, maintain biodiversity and reduce environmental degradation. Recently, commentators have started to question if the substantial effort and investment in 'weed science5 and 'invasion ecology5 is moving in the right direction (Davis et aL, 2009; Vanderhoeven et aL, 2010). This meeting was planned to 'raise the barJ in these important areas of plant ecology by attempting to encourage active, critical debate about current approaches and conceptual frameworks for research. In particular, there was a strong desire amongst participants to facilitate a greater integration and cross-fertilization of ideas between weed science, invasion ecology, and other fields of biology. The meeting was organized around three major themes: plant invasions, herbicide resistance, and climate change impacts.