Weeds and control of competing species: effects of weeding types and living mulch associated with a forest density gradient

Abstract

Recent research has been making efforts in the management of the herbaceous component
as an element that provides ecosystem services and in the reduction of externalities in the
productive processes. This work aimed to evaluate the composition of spontaneous vegetation
when submitted to different management of weeding and living mulch by the species Diodia
saponariifolia. The evaluated agricultural systems are immersed in landscapes with a density
gradient of forest fragments. The richness of the community of spontaneous species was
influenced by the type of management, being larger in the plots of living mulch (65 species)
and smaller with conventional weeding (47 species). At 120 days of monitoring, the relative
abundance of Cyperaceae (Cyp) and Poaceae (Poa) decreased significantly in treatments with
live cover in Gleba A: Cyp = - 8.52%; Poa = - 23.54% and in Gleba B: Cyp = - 33.75. For the
selective weeding, the reduction in Gleba A followed: Cyp = - 3.32%; Poa = - 18.85% and in
Gleba B: Cyp = - 27.63%