Ahri Snapshots

Weed population simulations can be useful to predict the effects of alternative management practices on herbicide resistance evolution. Almost all previous simulations have ignored the possibility of within-field spatial structure in a weed population, instead, making the implicit assumption of perfect dispersal and spatial homogeneity in population density and genetics.The effects of this simplifying assumption have not been examined, despite the fact that dispersal limitations and spatial structure within the population are likely to occur and to affect the evolution of resistance. Therefore, previous AHRI researcher, Dr Gayle Somerville, with her team, developed a new spatially-explicit model called SOMER, and examined how changing the following factors affected the predicted evolution of resistance: the degree of spatial resolution used in the model; whether resistance was semi-dominant or fully-dominant; distances of pollen and natural seed dispersal; and inadvertent collection and grain harvester weed s