Field boundary effects on soil seed banks and weed vegetation distribution in an arable field without weed control (Vaucluse, France)

Studies on the distribution of arable weed species relative to the field boundary have already been performed, although most of these studies have been realised in north-western Europe on intensively managed arable fields. Nevertheless, it is important to examine arable weed communities in more extensive cropping systems to increase our knowledge on how arable plant communities are constructed. Plant composition and seed bank of an arable weed community were sampled in an arable wheat field in Vaucluse (south-eastern France) at 1-m intervals along five 25-m perpendicular transects from the herbaceous field boundary. The-results showed that seed bank distribution and plant composition are primarily influenced by distance from the field boundary in the crop edge rather than soil characteristics or wheat density. ((C) 1999 Inra/Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.)