Understanding the nexus of rising CO2, climate change, and evolution in weed biology

Abstract Rapid increases in herbicide resistance have highlighted the ability of weeds to undergo genetic change within a short period of time. That change, in turn, has resulted in an increasing emphasis in weed science on the evolutionary ecology and potential adaptation of weeds to herbicide selection. Here we argue that a similar emphasis would also be invaluable for understanding another challenge that will profoundly alter weed biology: the rapid rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and the associated changes in climate. Our review of the literature suggests that elevated CO2 and climate change will impose strong selection pressures on weeds and that weeds will often have the capacity to respond with rapid adaptive evolution. Based on current data, climate change and rising CO2 levels are likely to alter the evolution of agronomic and invasive weeds, with consequences for distribution, community composition, and herbicide efficacy. In addition, we identify four key areas that represent clear knowledge gaps in weed evolution: (1) differential herbicide resistance in response to a rapidly changing CO2/climate confluence; (2) shifts in the efficacy of biological constraints (e.g., pathogens) and resultant selection shifts in affected weed species; (3) climate-induced phenological shifts in weed distribution, demography, and fitness relative to crop systems; and (4) understanding and characterization of epigenetics and the differential expression of phenotypic plasticity versus evolutionary adaptation. These consequences, in turn, should be of fundamental interest to the weed science community.

• Publication year

  2019

• Venue

  Invasive Plant Science and Management

• Publication date

  2019-06-01

• Fields of study

  Biology, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1017/inp.2019.12
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Herbicide effectiveness in controlling invasive plants under elevated CO2: Sufficient evidence to rethink weeds management.

  2018cited by this paper
• Contrasting effects of specialist and generalist herbivores on resistance evolution in invasive plants.

  2018cited by this paper
• Tolerance of subzero winter cold in kudzu (Pueraria montana var. lobata)

  2018cited by this paper
• The power and potential of genomics in weed biology and management.

  2018cited by this paper
• Genetic and demographic founder effects have long-term fitness consequences for colonising populations.

  2017cited by this paper
• Climate change effects on biological control of invasive plants by insects.

  2017cited by this paper
• Could recent increases in atmospheric CO2 have acted as a selection factor in Avena fatua populations? A case study of cultivated and wild oat competition

  2017cited by this paper
• Using the resurrection approach to understand contemporary evolution in changing environments

  2017cited by this paper
• Do invasive alien plants benefit more from global environmental change than native plants?

  2017cited by this paper
• Temperature influences the level of glyphosate resistance in barnyardgrass (Echinochloa colona).

  2016cited by this paper
• Glyphosate Resistance of C3 and C4 Weeds under Rising Atmospheric CO2

  2016cited by this paper
• Climate Change, Carbon Dioxide, and Pest Biology: Monitor, Mitigate, Manage.

  2016cited by this paper
• Impact of Climate Change Factors on Weeds and Herbicide Efficacy

  2016cited by this paper
• A harvest of weeds yields insight into a case of contemporary evolution

  2016cited by this paper
• The role of climate change and increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide on weed management: Herbicide efficacy

  2016cited by this paper
• Invasive plant species are locally adapted just as frequently and at least as strongly as native plant species

  2016cited by this paper
• Cheatgrass is favored by warming but not CO2 enrichment in a semi‐arid grassland

  2016cited by this paper
• Global threats from invasive alien species in the twenty-first century and national response capacities

  2016cited by this paper
• A resurrection experiment finds evidence of both reduced genetic diversity and potential adaptive evolution in the agricultural weed Ipomoea purpurea

  2015cited by this paper
• Three types of rescue can avert extinction in a changing environment

  2015cited by this paper
• Chapter Three - Weedy (red) rice: an emerging constraint to global rice production.

  2015cited by this paper
• Increased seed consumption by biological control weevil tempers positive CO 2 effect on invasive plant (Centaurea diffusa) fitness

  2015cited by this paper
• CMIP5 projected changes in spring and summer drought and wet conditions over North America

  2015cited by this paper
• Rapid genetic divergence in response to 15 years of simulated climate change

  2015cited by this paper
• Hidden shift of the ionome of plants exposed to elevated CO2 depletes minerals at the base of human nutrition

  2014cited by this paper
• Evolutionary responses to global change: lessons from invasive species.

  2014cited by this paper
• Climate Change 2014: Impacts,Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

  2014cited by this paper
• Warming, competition, and Bromus tectorum population growth across an elevation gradient

  2014cited by this paper
• Contemporary evolution of an invasive grass in response to elevated atmospheric CO2 at a Mojave Desert FACE site

  2014influential reference
• Impact of climate change on weeds in agriculture: a review

  2014cited by this paper
• Between migration load and evolutionary rescue: dispersal, adaptation and the response of spatially structured populations to environmental change

  2014cited by this paper
• Intraspecific functional differentiation suggests local adaptation to long‐term climate change in a calcareous grassland

  2014cited by this paper
• Global perspective of herbicide-resistant weeds.

  2014cited by this paper
• Slowing weed evolution with integrated weed management

  2013cited by this paper
• Invasive forb benefits from water savings by native plants and carbon fertilization under elevated CO2 and warming.

  2013cited by this paper
• Evidence for rapid evolution of phenology in an invasive grass

  2013cited by this paper
• Meta-analysis reveals evolution in invasive plant species but little support for Evolution of Increased Competitive Ability (EICA)

  2013cited by this paper
• Strategies to manage weedy rice in Asia

  2013cited by this paper
• Evolutionary and plastic responses to climate change in terrestrial plant populations

  2013cited by this paper
• Recent and Projected Increases in Atmospheric CO2 Concentration Can Enhance Gene Flow between Wild and Genetically Altered Rice (Oryza sativa)

  2012cited by this paper
• Climate change and the invasion of California by grasses

  2012cited by this paper
• More rapid climate change promotes evolutionary rescue through selection for increased dispersal distance

  2012cited by this paper
• The effectiveness of classical biological control of invasive plants

  2012cited by this paper
• Climate change-driven species' range shifts filtered by photoperiodism

  2012cited by this paper
• Evolutionary Limits and Constraints

  2012cited by this paper
• Plasticity and evolution in drought avoidance and escape in the annual plant Brassica rapa.

  2011cited by this paper
• Strong response of an invasive plant species (Centaurea solstitialis L.) to global environmental changes.

  2011cited by this paper
• Do invasive species show higher phenotypic plasticity than native species and, if so, is it adaptive? A meta-analysis.

  2011cited by this paper
• Genetic and environmental influences on leaf phenology and cold hardiness of native and introduced riparian trees

  2011cited by this paper
• Climate change and weed adaptation: can evolution of invasive plants lead to greater range expansion than forecasted?

  2011influential reference
• Adaptation and Evolutionary Rescue in Metapopulations Experiencing Environmental Deterioration

  2011cited by this paper
• Invasive species and climate change: an agronomic perspective

  2011cited by this paper
• Impacts and adaptation of European crop production systems to climate change

  2011cited by this paper
• Seed dispersal distance is more strongly correlated with plant height than with seed mass

  2011cited by this paper
• Quantifying the effect of drought on carbon dioxide‐induced changes in competition between a C3 crop (tomato) and a C4 weed (Amaranthus retroflexus)

  2011cited by this paper
• Climate change and plant regeneration from seed

  2011cited by this paper
• Weed Biology and Climate Change

  2011cited by this paper
• Observed soil temperature trends associated with climate change in Canada

  2011cited by this paper
• Genome-wide DNA methylation alterations of Alternanthera philoxeroides in natural and manipulated habitats: implications for epigenetic regulation of rapid responses to environmental fluctuation and phenotypic variation.

  2010cited by this paper
• Global Climate Change and Carbon Dioxide: Assessing Weed Biology and Management

  2010cited by this paper
• Predicting plant invasions in an era of global change.

  2010cited by this paper
• Biodiversity baselines, thresholds and resilience: testing predictions and assumptions using palaeoecological data.

  2010cited by this paper
• Evolution in action: plants resistant to herbicides.

  2010cited by this paper
• Competitive Interactions between Cultivated and Red Rice as a Function of Recent and Projected Increases in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

  2010cited by this paper
• Assessing ecosystem threats from global and regional change: hierarchical modeling of risk to sagebrush ecosystems from climate change, land use and invasive species in Nevada, USA

  2010cited by this paper
• Evolution of dispersal traits along an invasion route in the wind-dispersed Senecio inaequidens (Asteraceae)

  2010cited by this paper
• Climate change and the geography of weed damage: Analysis of U.S. maize systems suggests the potential for significant range transformations

  2009cited by this paper
• Alien species in a warmer world: risks and opportunities.

  2009cited by this paper
• Different responses of invasive and native species to elevated CO2 concentration

  2009cited by this paper
• Evolutionary-thinking in agricultural weed management.

  2009influential reference
• Invasive species, ecosystem services and human well-being.

  2009cited by this paper
• The Biology of Invasive Alien Plants in Canada. 10. Nymphoides peltata (S. G. Gmel.) Kuntze

  2008cited by this paper
• Effects of elevated CO2 on the protein concentration of food crops: a meta‐analysis

  2008cited by this paper
• Differential Response of Cultivated and Weedy (Red) Rice to Recent and Projected Increases in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

  2008cited by this paper
• Founding events in species invasions: genetic variation, adaptive evolution, and the role of multiple introductions

  2008cited by this paper
• The biology of invasive alien plants in Canada. 9. Impatiens glandulifera Royle.

  2008cited by this paper
• Adaptive evolution in invasive species.

  2008cited by this paper
• Warming and free-air CO2 enrichment alter demographics in four co-occurring grassland species.

  2007cited by this paper
• Rapid evolution of flowering time by an annual plant in response to a climate fluctuation

  2007cited by this paper
• Genetic and epigenetic mechanisms for gene expression and phenotypic variation in plant polyploids.

  2007cited by this paper
• Future challenges

  2007cited by this paper
• The TasFACE climate-change impacts experiment: design and performance of combined elevated CO2 and temperature enhancement in a native Tasmanian grassland

  2006cited by this paper
• Woody Invaders and the Challenges They Pose to Forest Ecosystems in the Eastern United States

  2006cited by this paper
• Evolutionary Ecology of Plant Adaptation to Serpentine Soils

  2005cited by this paper
• Climate change and changes in global precipitation patterns: what do we know?

  2005cited by this paper
• Climate change threats to plant diversity in Europe.

  2005cited by this paper
• Changes in biomass and root:shoot ratio of field-grown Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense), a noxious, invasive weed, with elevated CO2: implications for control with glyphosate

  2004cited by this paper
• Extinction risk from climate change

  2004cited by this paper
• Response of an understory plant community to elevated [CO2 ] depends on differential responses of dominant invasive species and is mediated by soil water availability.

  2004cited by this paper
• RAPID EVOLUTION OF AN INVASIVE PLANT

  2004cited by this paper
• Kudzu (Pueraria montana): History, Physiology, and Ecology Combine to Make a Major Ecosystem Threat

  2004cited by this paper
• Climate change and decreasing herbicide persistence.

  2004cited by this paper
• Adaptability of plants invading North American cropland

  2004influential reference
• Does elevated CO2 facilitate naturalization of the non‐indigenous Prunus laurocerasus in Swiss temperate forests?

  2003cited by this paper
• Gene Flow Between Red Rice (Oryza sativa) and Herbicide-Resistant Rice (O. sativa): Implications for Weed Management1

  2003cited by this paper
• Evaluation of the growth response of six invasive species to past, present and future atmospheric carbon dioxide.

  2003cited by this paper
• Plant reproduction under elevated CO2 conditions: a meta‐analysis of reports on 79 crop and wild species

  2002cited by this paper
• Comparison of the effect of elevated CO2 on an invasive species (Centaurea solstitialis) in monoculture and community settings

  2002cited by this paper
• Estimated migration rates under scenarios of global climate change

  2002cited by this paper
• Gene flow and the limits to natural selection

  2002cited by this paper

• Integrating weed seed loss mechanisms in regenerative agriculture for more sustainable weed management

  2026cites this paper
• Implications of extreme flooding events for dispersal of Reynoutria spp. (knotweeds) in the wake of climate change

  2026cites this paper
• Yükseltilmiş Karbondioksit (CO₂) Seviyelerinin Yaprakbitleri (Aphididae) Üzerindeki Biyolojik ve Ekolojik Etkileri: Güncel Bir Derleme

  2025cites this paper
• The divergence of the public and private plant breeding sectors with implications for climate change

  2025cites this paper
• Are our weeds changing? A survey of stakeholders from the Australian grain production systems

  2025cites this paper
• Effect of Different Temperatures on Herbicide Efficacy for the Management of the Invasive Weed Solanum rostratum Dunal (Family: Solanaceae)

  2025cites this paper
• Climate-driven challenges in weed management for ornamental crop production in the United States: a review

  2025cites this paper
• Can agricultural systems facing climate change benefit from a deeper understanding of invasive plant species?

  2025cites this paper
• The Use of a Composition of Bacterial Consortia and Living Mulch to Reduce Weeds in Organic Spring Barley Cultivation as an Element of Sustainable Plant Production

  2024cites this paper
• Crop-weed competition and herbicide bioefficacy: Implications in a changing climate

  2024influential citation
• Elevated CO2, nutrition dilution, and shifts in Earth's insect abundance.

  2024cites this paper
• Advancements and Developments in the Detection and Control of Invasive Weeds: A Global Review of the Current Challenges and Future Opportunities

  2024cites this paper
• Climate and pest interactions pose a cross-landscape management challenge to soil and water conservation

  2023influential citation
• Impact of Futuristic Climate Variables on Weed Biology and Herbicidal Efficacy: A Review

  2023cites this paper
• Calling time on alien plantscapes

  2023cites this paper
• Future climate change impacts on U.S. agricultural yields, production, and market

  2023cites this paper
• Early Sowing on Some Soybean Genotypes under Organic Farming Conditions

  2023cites this paper
• Evaluation of secondary sexual dimorphism of the dioecious Amaranthus palmeri under abiotic stress

  2023cites this paper
• The impact of global climate change on biodiversity and public health: A review

  2023cites this paper
• Present status, future trends, and control strategies of invasive alien plants in China affected by human activities and climate change

  2023cites this paper
• Interactive effect of elevated CO2 and drought on physiological traits of Datura stramonium

  2022cites this paper
• Photosynthetic activity and water use efficiency of Salvia verbenaca L. under elevated CO 2 and water‐deficit conditions

  2022cites this paper
• Rising Carbon Dioxide and Global Nutrition: Evidence and Action Needed

  2022cites this paper
• Secondary sexual dimorphism traits under abiotic stress in dioecious species: The case of Amaranthus palmeri

  2022cites this paper
• Effects on Photosynthetic Response and Biomass Productivity of Acacia longifolia ssp. longifolia Under Elevated CO2 and Water-Limited Regimes

  2022cites this paper
• Phenotypic Trait Variation in Populations of a Global Invader Mayweed Chamomile (Anthemis cotula): Implications for Weed Management

  2021cites this paper
• Rapid Evolution of Invasive Weeds Under Climate Change: Present Evidence and Future Research Needs

  2021cites this paper
• Crop Adaptation: Weedy and Crop Wild Relatives as an Untapped Resource to Utilize Recent Increases in Atmospheric CO2

  2021cites this paper
• Weeds and Their Responses to Management Efforts in A Changing Climate

  2021cites this paper
• Scientific review of the impact of climate change on plant pests

  2021cites this paper
• Drought and Competition With Ivyleaf Morningglory (Ipomoea hederacea) Inhibit Corn and Soybean Growth

  2021cites this paper
• Ten Ways That Weed Evolution Defies Human Management Efforts Amidst a Changing Climate

  2021cites this paper
• Addressing Climate Change: What Can Plant Invasion Science and Weed Science Learn From Each Other?

  2021cites this paper
• Climate Change and the Herbicide Paradigm: Visiting the Future

  2020cites this paper
• Integrating Cover Crops for Weed Management in the Semiarid U.S. Great Plains: Opportunities and Challenges

  2020cites this paper
• Influence of elements of climate change on the growth and fecundity of Datura stramonium

  2020cites this paper
• Agriculture and Crop Protection; Its Global Importance and Relationship with Climate Change

  2020cites this paper