DYNAMICS OF WEED POPULATIONS

Weeds have ecological attributes that confer the ability to interfere with human activities. Roger Cousens and Martin Mortimer place weed management within an ecological context, with the focus on the manipulation of population size. They consider the dynamics of abundance and spatial distribution at both geographic and local scales, and consider the basic processes of dispersal, reproduction and mortality together with the factors that influence them. The authors show how management modifies patterns of behavior that are intrinsic to populations, and note the evolution and management of resistance to herbicides. This book provides weed science with the conceptual basis that has previously been lacking. It also gives ecologists and botanists access to the extensive database on the population ecology of weeds.