Will Rising Temperatures Make Superweeds Even Stronger?

Widely used herbicides are struggling to kill some weeds. Some experts think heat could be part of the problem.

From the digital magazine, Undark • Dec. 7, 2020

By Natasha Gilbert • 12.07.2020

Around 10 years ago, in the fierce heat of the Kansas summer, many of the noxious kochia weeds invading Phillip Stahlman's research fields simply wouldn't budge when sprayed with a mixture of two...

Elizabeth Mosqueda is an Assistant Professor at the California State University, Monterey Bay.
Richard Smith is a Vegetable Crop Production and Weed Science Farm Advisor with UC Cooperative Extension.
Steve Fennimore is a Cooperative Extension Weed...

Weed Science-Based Summer Scholars Opportunity at Cornell University

Guess what, undergraduates! Cornell AgriTech in Geneva has received the green light to proceed with the 2021 season of the Summer Scholars Research Program, which offers students the opportunity to work with faculty, their graduate students and postdocs, and staff on horticulture, plant pathology, and entomology research projects. The goal of the program is to provide undergraduates with the opportunity to plan and conduct experiments, evaluate data, communicate results, and learn about opportunities in agricultural and food research.

Dr. Lynn Sosnoskie (Assistant Professor of Weed Ecology and...

In 2017, I started getting reports of a watergrass biotype/species (Echinochloa spp.) that was difficult to control using our suite of herbicides registered in rice. At the time, I knew we had multiple herbicide-resistance in late watergrass (Echinochloa phyllopogon), so I initially just thought the resistant biotype was spreading, and had maybe gained resistance to additional herbicide modes of action. However, once I started visiting fields, it quickly became apparent that this was not late watergrass (phenotypically-speaking). It also did not appear to be barnyardgrass (Echinochloa crus-galli), although the Echinochloa species are notoriously difficult to identify, and phenotypically quite variable in...