Abstract Background Amaranthus palmeri has emerged as the most widespread weed of agricultural land in large parts of North and South America. Understanding its population dynamics and the influence of meteorological variables becomes important for decision-making in an integrated management context. The hypothesis is that the emergence of A. palmeri is influenced by thermal time and extreme weather events that occurred in the previous 45, 30 or 15 days. Objective The work was aimed to detect the influence of meteorological variables and extreme weather events on the emergence of A. palmeri under field conditions. Methods A field experiment was carried out in order to record seedling emergence of A. palmeri in two growing seasons, 2017/2018 (S1) and 2018/2019 (S2), in Argentina. Associations between weed emergence and thermal time (in growing degree-days GDD), meteorological variables or extreme weather events recorded at 15, 30 and 45 days before to each evaluation time were studied by regression, principal components and multiple correspondence analyses. Results Thermal time was closely associated to the progress of cumulative emergence in both seasons, but the emergence periodicity was conditional with rainfall. The high precipitation during the spring determined a short lag period (121.8 GDD) in S2. Contrarily, the largest lag period (236.6 GDD) was detected in S1 related to a drought that concentrated the emergence in the beginning of the summer when the rainfall increased. Conclusions Thermal time allows the cumulative emergence prediction; however, extreme weather events like drought induce quiescence, concentrating the emergence in a short period.

Abstract Background The use of glyphosate on glyphosate-tolerant soybean crops led to improved control of a wide range of weeds, which resulted in reduced costs with the no-till system. The emergence of the first herbicide-resistant weeds have driven an increase in glyphosate applications, and even though those soybean materials have a low sensitivity to glyphosate, the rhizobial symbionts could be affected by the herbicide, and plants might be indirectly injured. Objective This study aimed to determine the effect of multiple glyphosate applications throughout the soybean crop cycle on plant growth, nodulation and biological nitrogen fixation (BNF). Methods The effects of one, two and three treatments of a recommended dose of glyphosate on BNF and growth of glyphosate-tolerant soybean plants were evaluated in greenhouse and field experiments. Results Two or more applications of glyphosate inhibited the BNF and growth of soybean plants. Under controlled conditions, at least one glyphosate application at V1 affected the number and mass of nodules per plant, and successive applications in advanced phonological stages resulted in the inhibition of nodule growth. With two and three sprayings of glyphosate, the proportion of N derived from the air in plants was reduced by 41% compared with the treatment without glyphosate. In field experiments, detrimental effects of three sequential applications of glyphosate on number of nodules per plant (-25%), biomass production (-21%) and grain yield (-36%) were detected. Conclusions Multiple glyphosate applications of glyphosate inhibited the BNF and growth of soybean plants and it could be as damaging as +weed interference. Nomenclature: Glyphosate; soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merril

Abstract Herbicide resistance in weeds is an evolutionary process. Although there is a great global diversity of weeds, independent origins of herbicide resistance evolution have been shown to converge into similar molecular and physiological resistance mechanisms in geographically distant weed populations. Amaranthus species have shown an extraordinary ability to evolve herbicide resistance and invade new environments at a global scale, which represents an opportunity for identifying adaptive evolutionary patterns. The most frequent cases of herbicide-resistant Amaranthus species have been identified in North America, where A. hybridus, A. palmeri, A. tuberculatus and A. retroflexus comprise more than 90% of them. Meanwhile, A. retroflexus, A. hybridus and A. palmeri have been the most reported species in South America. Around 70% of the cases of herbicide-resistant Amaranthus species have been identified in global soybean and corn crops. The higher fecundity and adaptability of plants to a broad range of environments would make populations more likely to persist and be selected for herbicide resistance. Co-evolution of multiple herbicide resistance mechanisms at the plant and/or population level is evident in weed species. For Amaranthus spp., resistance cases highlight evolutionary responses to herbicide use with clear patterns of selection for multiple herbicide resistance in particular regions and spread to new areas within and between global cropping systems. Seed-mediated gene flow is an important component to the spread of herbicide resistant Amaranthus spp. populations. Reduction of the intensity of herbicide selection by combining diverse and integrated weed control practices should be a common goal in weed management programs.