Soil management systems and their effect on the weed seed bank

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the density and composition of the soil weed seed bank when bean, corn, and soybean are cultivated in the no-tillage system (NTS) in rotation with winter cover crop species and in the conventional tillage system (CTS). The experiment was installed in a complete randomized block design with three replicates. The evaluation of the seed bank was performed on soil samples (0–10 and 10–20 cm) in four points of each experimental unit, at 15, 30, 60, and 90 days of cultivation. Bean, corn, and soybean crops were sown in the NTS with different soil cover crops in rotation, as well as in the CTS. The NTS provided a more dense and abundant soil seed bank of the species Gnaphalium spicatum and Oxalis corniculata when corn, soybean, and bean were cultivated. The species Lolium multiflorum showed lower density and less seeds in the soil seed bank when the NTS was adopted. The use of the winter cover crops black oat and cow vetch, cultivated individually or in consortium, resulted in a lower density of weed species, especially of L. multiflorum. The NTS provides a lower density of weed species in the soil seed bank than the CTS.