Climate change makes a troublesome weed easier to kill
Suer IE, Tursun N
Climate Adaptation
If you've battled cocklebur or similar weeds choking a garden bed or field edge, this means warmer, CO2-rich summers won't give them an edge against the right herbicide; they'll actually get more vulnerable to it.
Scientists grew cocklebur, a tough weedy plant, under different levels of carbon dioxide and temperature to see how climate change might affect weed control. More CO2 made the weed grow bigger and faster, as expected, since CO2 acts like plant fertilizer. But the surprise was that this faster growth sped up how quickly one type of herbicide moved through the plant, making it kill the weed more easily rather than letting it build resistance. A different herbicide that works through the soil wasn't affected by climate conditions at all, making it a more predictable choice as weather patterns shift.
Key Findings
Elevated CO2 up to 1000 ppm at 26/16°C significantly boosted cocklebur's vegetative growth and dry biomass.
Higher CO2 increased plant metabolism and herbicide translocation, lowering ED50 values and making trifloxysulfuron-sodium (a systemic ALS inhibitor) more effective, not less.
Fluometuron, a soil-active PSII inhibitor, maintained stable efficacy regardless of CO2 or temperature changes, making it a climate-resilient option.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Rising CO2 levels make the aggressive weed cocklebur grow faster, but that growth spurt actually makes it easier to kill with systemic herbicides, while soil-applied herbicides keep working no matter what the climate does.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Effects of elevated CO2 and temperature on cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium L.) and its herbicide response.
Climate change, characterized by rising atmospheric CO2 and temperature fluctuations, significantly alters crop-weed interactions and weed management efficacy. This study evaluated the interactive ...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
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Xanthium (cocklebur) is a genus of flowering plants in the tribe Heliantheae within the family Asteraceae, native to the Americas and eastern Asia and some parts of south Asia.