| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Department of Crop and Soil Sciences Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824
(buhler{at}msu.edu)
ROBERT L. ZIMDAHL. Blackwell Publishing Professional, 2121 State Ave., Ames, IA 50014. 2004. Hardcover, 220 pp., $79.99. ISBN 0-8138-0279-2.
This book is a useful reference for those interested in the impacts of weeds on the productivity of food, feed, and fiber crops. It provides a comprehensive overview of weed–crop competition and its significance to human activities. As is his custom, Dr. Zimdahl adds his unique perspective on the study of weeds and the discipline of weed science. This perspective will be of particular value to graduate students as they begin careers in weed science and applied plant ecology.
The first edition of this book, published 20 years ago, was a compilation of research results on weed–crop competition. The target audience for the first edition was scientists in the developing world who did not have access to weed science literature. The second edition expands on this concept and summarizes the state of our knowledge of what happens when weeds and crops share the same space and then explores the current understanding of why the responses occur. Zimdahl attempts to make the case that we need to reduce the duplication of research that shows that weeds reduce the yield of crops. A goal of the author is to convince readers that we know that weeds reduce crop yield and we now need increased effort to understand why the responses occur and develop new methods to reduce the impact of weeds on world crop production.
The first two chapters provide an historical perspective and definitions as used in the weed–crop literature. The following chapters cover the role of competition in the plant community, the influence of competition on individual plants, and an extensive review of reports of competition between individual weed species and crops. The next several chapters explore various aspects of competition, experimental methods, modeling, and the impact of research on weed management. The book concludes with a short but provocative chapter on the complexity of weed–crop competition.
The sections where Dr. Zimdahl assesses the value and application of weed–crop competition research are the greatest contribution of this book. He challenges the reader to look beyond the traditional methods of assessing weed–crop competition through density-response experiments. All readers may not agree with his conclusions, but he challenges weed scientists and plant ecologists to delve into the mechanisms of plant interactions to form a new understanding of crop losses from weeds.
I suggest that this book should be required reading for graduate students and others contemplating research on weed–crop competition. Not only does it provide a comprehensive review of the literature, but it also challenges the reader to assess accepted experimental methods and to reassess the value of the data and conclusions generated from these experiments. The book should be of value to researchers and graduate students and appropriate as a text for advanced courses in weed–crop competition and as a supplemental reference for undergraduate courses in weed science. I believe that this book is a valuable addition to the weed science literature.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
