Mowing strategies for controlling Cirsium arvense in a permanent pasture in New Zealand compared using a matrix model.

ABSTRACT: Defoliation has frequently been proposed as a means of controlling Cirsium arvense (L.) Scop. (Californian thistle, Canada thistle, creeping thistle, perennial thistle), an economically damaging pastoral weed in temperate regions of the world, but its optimization has remained obscure. We developed a matrix model for the population dynamics of C. arvense in sheep-grazed pasture in New Zealand that accounts for the effects of aerial shoot defoliation on a population's photosynthetic opportunity and consequential overwintered root biomass, enabling mowing regimes varying in the seasonal timing and frequency of defoliation to be compared. The model showed that the long-term population dynamics of the weed is influenced by both the timing and frequency of mowing; a single-yearly mowing, regard

SUBMITTER: Bourdot GW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4809806 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature