Phytosanitary zoning of weeds at the macro level: a case study of the North-Western region of Russia
Keywords:
weed species, range spreading, range prediction, mapping, plant protectionAbstract
Weeds are the wild plant species that are the components of plant communities of secondary habitats. Weed species distribution is not regulated by a specific agricultural crop, but is rather governed primarily due to natural factors, the main of them are heat and moisture supply of the area. In this work we matched the heat and moisture factors limiting the distribution of each individual weed species in the north and the south with the indicators of heat and moisture supply of the North-Western economic region. Based on this, complex of weed species adapted to heat and moisture supply in this area was revealed. The reliability of the species complex was verified by numerous data of authors’ field studies in the North-Western region. The territories withIn Russian Federation similar in heat and moisture supply to the regions of the Northwestern economic zone were modeled using GIS. The presence of species of the revealed complex was confirmed and the absence of some of them in the modelled zones was explained using the data from scientific publications. The algorithm of phytosanitary zoning in relation to weed species on a regional level is presented useful for development of a long-term forecast of the weed species complex for specific territories.